Good News/Bad News

Good News/Bad News

On September 13, 2019 an FDA advisory board recommended approval of an oral peanut vaccine (“OIT” for oral immunotherapy).  If this recommendation leads to approval, peanut allergic individuals will be faced with a tough decision.

Approval is based in part on large studies done in California on children and adults with severe peanut allergy.  In this study, 85% of the OIT treated patients were able to tolerate 4 grams of peanut without serious reaction.  That’s the good news.

The bad news is that stopping OIT lead to a fairly quick return of the severe allergy.  Additional bad news is that despite being protected from severe reactions a large number of patients had frequent mild allergic reactions and were prone to develop a condition called eosinophilic esophagitis – a form of allergic reflux.

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