Parents of kids who have peanut allergies have to practice constant vigilance, whether that means carefully skimming the ingredients on food packaging or warning teachers about the dangers of unexpected treats at school. A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine presents a simple treatment option for peanut allergies in kids from 1 to 3 years of age: a skin patch.
In the study, published Wednesday, French pharmaceutical company DBV Technologies and a group of investigators from across the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Canada discuss the results of a Phase 3 trial of the Viaskin Peanut skin patch. In the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, two-thirds of toddlers with peanut allergies responded to treatment and were able to tolerate ingesting the equivalent of a few peanuts, compared to one-third of toddlers in the placebo arm.
“The intent of the product is not to get children to go to their favorite store to pick up candy bars and start eating peanuts,” said Pharis Mohideen, chief medical officer at DBV Technologies. “The concept is like an airbag: You drive your car, you try to be as safe as you can, but accidents happen and your airbag deploys and it protects you.”
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