After NHS England got the first deal of its kind in Europe, thousands of kids and teens with peanut allergy will get a new treatment. This life-changing treatment, called Palforzia, helps to lessen the severity of reactions to peanuts, such as anaphylaxis. This means that some children can now go on family trips abroad, have birthday parties, and eat Christmas treats for the first time. Patients get a dose once a month, which gives them time to carefully build up their tolerance. Through a deal made by the NHS, children and young people in England will be the first in Europe to get the treatment. This year, up to 600 kids ages 4 to 17 are expected to get help, and the number could go up to 2,000 each year after that. In the UK, one in every 50 children has an allergy to peanuts. This is one of the most common food-related causes of death.
At the moment, people with peanut allergies have to stay away from peanuts and take emergency medication if they have an allergic reaction. This new treatment can make a big difference in the lives of patients and their families, and thanks to a deal made by the NHS, people in the UK will be the first in Europe to get it. "It will make patients and their families less afraid and worried, even if they have had this allergy for years, and carry around emergency medicine just in case. "They should be able to go out to eat or travel together without having to worry about an allergic reaction that could send them to the hospital or even kill them. "This patient access deal is the first of its kind in Europe. It is one of a number of commercial agreements that the NHS has made for innovative treatments for patients over the past 18 months. During that time, the NHS has also treated thousands of people with Covid-19 and run the largest and most successful vaccination program in health history."
Palforzia is a pill made by Aimmune Therapeutics that is meant to help children with severe peanut allergies get used to the protein in peanuts so that they don't have a serious or even fatal reaction if they accidentally eat peanuts. A few tests done decades ago showed that food allergy shots weren't safe. So, around the middle of the 2000s, scientists started giving allergens to children instead. In 2005, the National Institutes of Health put together a group to do clinical trials on people with food allergies. This was a turning point. The second was in 2011 when supporters held a symposium at Harvard Medical School in Boston to make sure that the pioneering immunotherapy efforts had the same goals and plans. There were about 60 people there. Carla McGuire Davis, a child allergist and immunologist at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, says, "The patients were very clear." They didn't want to eat a peanut butter sandwich; they just wanted to be safe in case they ran into one by accident. The end dose for the trialists was set at two peanuts, and they kept going. Hugh Sampson, a pediatric allergist and immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City who has studied immunotherapy for food allergies for many years, says that early clinical trials showed promising results. 
He says that after 6 to 12 months of treatment, about 70% to 80% of patients could eat more of the food than they could before. The lab results were also good: Over time, eating allergens seems to make mast cells less active, which stops them from releasing chemicals that are bad for the body. The therapy also makes other immunoglobulins, such as IgG4, which stops mast cells from working even more, and IgA, which keeps food allergens from getting out of the gut. More than $3.5 million from FARE helped start a company called Aimmune, which came about because of a conference in 2011. A few years later, a second company called DBV Technologies grew. It was based in Montrouge, France, and New York City. Aimmune started to make a pill that could be taken by mouth. It was basically a capsule filled with a powder made from peanut flour and proteins that were kept at the same level. In February, the company sent out a press release with the results of a Phase III trial with 496 kids and teens. The trial had 11 dose levels that went up every two weeks. About 20% of the 372 people who were in the treatment group dropped out for different reasons, such as side effects. After about a year of treatment, 96% of people who had finished were able to eat one peanut with only mild side effects, 84% could handle two, and 63% could handle at least three. DBV's skin patch is a more cautious approach. It gives out tiny amounts of peanut protein, the same as one peanut over three years. Last year, DBV said that after a year of testing with almost 400 patients in its Phase III trial, those who wore the patch could, on average, eat three peanuts over the course of several hours without getting sick. Before the trial, the average was just under one peanut. The results were very different for each person.
If the FDA approves one or both of these products in the next few months, it's likely that they will be well received. For example, Aimmune is now worth about $1.5 billion on the U.S. stock exchange. In 2016, FARE got $47 million for its share of Aimmune. After the NHS negotiated a contract for innovative oral medicine, children in England with peanut allergies will be the first in Europe to get therapy and treatment that will change their lives. Palforzia, which has been approved for use in the US before, helps to lessen the severity of symptoms after a peanut allergy reaction, including anaphylaxis. Oral immunotherapy, or OIT, is a process that its creators say helps kids gradually become less sensitive to peanuts over time. It involves giving small amounts of peanut protein that gradually increase from 0.5 mg to 6 mg while being watched, with each stage becoming available based on how well it works. Some of the people who took part in the Palisade and Artemis studies at Evelina London Children's Hospital have had their lives changed in big ways because of them. One nine-year-old girl who took part in a clinical study that included oral therapy can now eat out and go on vacation without feeling nervous. Sophie Pratt, her mother, said that the clinical trial "has changed the lives of everyone in our family. Emily's life is no longer limited, and she no longer worries that the smallest mistake could put her life in danger. And it has taken away all the worry and stress that came with the simple act of eating every day," she said. It was most obvious on special occasions like birthdays, Christmas, and vacations, when special meals like cakes, rosti, ice cream, and sweets with warnings like "may contain peanuts" or menus that weren't in English were served.
Six out of ten people between the ages of 4 and 17 who had a reaction to about 10mg of peanut protein at the start of the study were able to take 1,000mg by the end, which is a lot more than the amount of peanut protein they would be exposed to by accident. This year, Palforzia is expected to be used on about 600 kids between the ages of 4 and 17. Thanks to an agreement with the NHS, the kids in England will be the first in Europe to get it. After that, 2,000 children will be helped every year. One out of every 50 kids in the United Kingdom has an allergy to peanuts. The people who made Palforzia say that it is not a cure and that kids who take it must still carry epinephrine and not eat peanuts.
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