Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is part of a study that could provide new hope for children’s suffering from peanut allergies. Brian Vickery, MD, Director of the Food Allergy Program at Children’s, was a co-author on this publication, having participated as a Principal Investigator in this global study. Dr. Vickery joins Barnes and Leslie to discuss his research.
Researchers, led by Dr. Brian Vickery, Chief of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Marcus Professor of Pediatric Immunology at Emory, participated in a nationwide clinical trial testing Xolair (generic name, omalizumab) an injectable drug for multiple food allergies, showing it increased the amount of foods that some multi-food allergic children as young as one year could consume without an allergic reaction after exposure. Findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, following U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval earlier this month based on these data.
The study was designed to see if taking omalizumab increased the threshold amount of food that caused allergic reactions, reducing the likelihood of reactions during accidental exposure. Results showed that nearly 67% of participants who completed treatment with omalizumab could consume about 2.5 peanuts (600mg) without a moderate or severe allergic reaction, in contrast with less than 7% of participants who received placebo. Treatment with omalizumab yielded similar outcomes for egg, milk, wheat, cashew, walnut and hazelnut, suggesting the therapy has the potential to protect children if they accidentally eat a food to which they are allergic despite efforts to avoid it.
Read more here: https://www.choa.org/about-us/newsroom/first-drug-to-help-reduce-allergic-reactions-approved-by-fda