Peanut Allergy Skin Patch Shows Efficacy

A new skin patch may reduce the burden of peanut allergies in children.

DBV Technologies will be presenting 8 abstracts at the 2017 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAI) Annual Meeting. A majority of these abstracts will discuss data from their Viaskin technology platform.

The company will detail positive findings from the OLFUS-VIPES clinical trial during a poster session.

The clinical trial evaluated the long-term efficacy and safety of Viaskin Peanut in children with peanut allergies. In the study, the researchers evaluated the treatment through a double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge that was given at 12 and 24 months.

If patients exhibited an allergic reaction, the challenge was stopped immediately, according to a press release. Each patient received treatment with a daily Viaskin Peanut patch for 1 year on the back.

Viaskin Peanut demonstrated favorable safety, tolerability, and compliance in patients with a peanut allergy. The therapy was also seen to prevent treatment-related epinephrine use or serious adverse events, according to a press release.

Notably, patient compliance measured by adherence was a median of 95.5%. The investigators also noted that Viaskin Peanut was long-lasting, with 83% of patients responding during the second year of the trial.

At 2 years, patients were able to tolerate larger doses of peanut protein compared with baseline, suggesting that they were more desensitized to exposure.

Viaskin Peanut is DBV’s lead drug candidate based on its EPIT platform, which aims to deliver active compounds to the immune system through the skin, according to the press release. The drug is currently being examined in a phase 3 development program, including children with peanut allergies aged 4 to 11.

Immunotherapy techniques have been a promising approach to treat food allergies. Since there are no other preventive treatment options, patients with allergies must avoid their allergen at all costs, which may be difficult to manage in children.

Providing these patients with a novel way to increase their desensitization to peanut protein can lead to improved quality of life and reduce the likelihood that they will require emergency treatment with an epinephrine auto-injector.

Additionally, DBV will also discuss the efficacy of EPIT in patients with type 1 diabetes, and in a vaccination against respiratory ryncytial virus, according to the press release.

"The long-term clinical data we are presenting at AAAAI provide further insight into the promise of Viaskin Peanut as a potential treatment option for peanut-allergic children," said Lucia Septién, MD, chief medical officer of DBV Technologies. "These detailed results, combined with pre-clinical data that will be presented at the meeting, also underscore the tremendous potential of EPIT to help address a wide range of unmet medical needs."