This "Breakthrough" Drug for People With Peanut Allergies May Soon Change Lives
People living with peanut allergies deal with the daily struggle of having to avoid peanut products at all costs or they risk experiencing a severe allergic reaction...but a new treatment could possibly change all of that.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine Sunday found that AR101, a peanut-derived immunotherapy drug, allowed participants ages 4 to 17 to tolerate at least 600 mg of peanut protein (which is about two whole peanut kernels). Participants ages 18 to 55 saw no significant change, and a total of 551 people were tested.
However, the discovery is revolutionary because the study reports that there are currently no approved treatment options for patients who are at risk for unpredictable and life-threatening allergic reactions to peanuts.
Study co-author allergist Stephen Tilles told the scientific news website EurekaAlert!, "We're excited about the potential to help children and adolescents with peanut allergy protect themselves against accidentally eating a food with peanut in it."
He continued: "We were pleased to find that two-thirds of the people in the study were able to tolerate the equivalent of two peanuts per day after nine to 12 months of treatment. And half the patients tolerated the equivalent of four peanuts."
His co-author allergist Jay Lieberman said the treatment is "not a quick fix," but added that it's "definitely a breakthrough."
"The hope would be to have a treatment available in the second half of 2019," Lieberman said. "If that happens, people who receive and are able to tolerate this treatment should be protected from accidental exposures."
The approval of the drugs is pending a U.S. Food and Drug Administration review, so if you're allergic, hold off on making those PB&J sandwiches just yet.
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