Daily US Times, Washington: The US has approved the country’s first peanut allergy drug for children
AR101 or Palforzia, what the drug is called, uses oral immunotherapy, with children given tiny but increasing amounts of peanut protein over a six-month period under medical supervision.
After that, the users have to continue to take a daily dose, so that they can tolerate accidental exposure to the nuts.
The peanut allergy drug is not a cure and makers warn that the risk of a potentially fatal anaphylactic reaction remains.
The makers further warned that patients must continue to avoid peanuts in their diet.
In the US, peanuts are the most common food allergen with an increase in the number of those affected by food allergies across the West in recent decades.
Several trials had taken place to desensitise patients with peanut allergies in the US and elsewhere, but the drug is the first to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In the UK, the drug is not authorized yet.
AR101 or Palforzia has been authorized for use in patients whose ages are between four-seventeen, comes in the form of a powder which is sprinkled on food.
King’s College of London scientists said last year that oral immunotherapy offered “protection but not a cure” for peanut allergies, with treatment only effective while patients continued taking small amounts of the allergen.
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