Robert Wood, director of the Eudowood Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, was speaking about a study he led that found that omalizumab (an injectable, FDA-approved medication for treating asthma and other allergic conditions) substantially reduced potentially life-threatening reactions in patients with an allergy to peanut and other common food allergies.

In the study, investigators compared the effects of 16–20 weeks of omalizumab injections with placebo injections in 180 participants ranging from age 1 to 55 with a history of peanut allergy and at least two other food allergies. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive omalizumab or placebo. All but three of the participants were age 17 or younger.

Researchers found that after 16 weeks, 66.9% of patients treated with omalizumab were able to tolerate 600 milligrams or more of peanut protein (equal to about 2.5 peanuts) compared with 6.8% of participants who received placebo injections. The team also found that omalizumab injections increased participants’ threshold reactivity to other common food allergens — milk, eggs, wheat, cashews, walnuts and hazelnuts — to levels that would protect most patients from reactions after accidental exposure.

A report on the first stage of the three-stage study, was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The FDA recently approved omalizumab for treatment of multiple food allergies following an interim analysis based on this study.