SEATTLE — Many Western Washington families took part in clinical trials for a pill that has been shown to increase the peanut tolerance for people with severe peanut allergies.
The results of phase 3 of the trials were unveiled at the Seattle Convention Center on Sunday and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
On Monday, KIRO 7 talked to Seattle allergist Dr. Stephen Tilles, who was a clinical investigator for the AR101 Oral Immunotherapy trials.
“It's a really big deal,” Dr. Tilles said. “It's very similar to allergy shots that we've done for pollen for many decades. And it's the same principle. The main difference is you're swallowing it and you're doing it at home every day.”
Aimmune Therapeutics developed the drug, and many Western Washington families were part of the study. The pill is a pharmaceutical, small dose of peanuts. And the amount is increased every two weeks for 30 weeks.
At the beginning of the trial, patients who could only tolerate 1/30th of a peanut per day eventually tolerated 1 or 2 full peanuts per day.
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Children ages 4 to 17 showed the most promising results, but adults saw benefits too. The Food and Drug Administration has fast-tracked the approval process which should take six to eight months. Then, doctors could potentially start prescribing the pills next fall.
The study is not over. Researchers will continue following patients for the next couple of years and they hope patients can stop taking the pills and continue their tolerance to peanuts.
The idea isn't to add peanuts to the diet for people with severe allergies, but the trials found it gave those people more freedom.
“Going to a restaurant,” Dr. Tilles said. “Going to an overnight at a friend's house, going to a church potluck that you can continue to avoid peanuts without fear that an accidental ingestion would have a horrible outcome.”
For more information on the study, click here.
Cox Media Group
