Epicutaneous immunotherapy a durable treatment option against peanut allergies

Continued daily treatment with epicutaneous immunotherapy (EPIT) elicits a stable response in children with peanut allergies, a recent study has found.

The PEOPLE* study is an ongoing 5-year extension of the PEPITES** trial and seeks to determine the efficacy and safety of continued EPIT in kids with peanut allergies. The current report presented the 2-year interim findings of a month-36 double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge.

A total of 141 children completed all treatment as per the study protocol and were eligible for efficacy assessment. Over half (51.8 percent; n=73) achieved an eliciting dose (ED) of ≥1,000 mg at the 36-month check-in, as compared to only 40.4 percent (n=57) at month 12. After 3 years of treatment, 75.9 percent of participants saw an increase in ED from baseline.

Notably, 13.5 percent (n=19) of the participants became able to tolerate the full double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge dose of 5,444 mg, and researchers reported an increase in the median reactive dose, jumping from 144 mg at baseline to 944 mg at month 36.

Eighteen patients were included in the sustained unresponsiveness evaluation, where 77.8 percent (n=14) had maintained an ED ≥1,000 mg at 38 months despite being off treatment.

In terms of safety, researchers reported that only 1 percent of the patients withdrew from the study due to treatment-related adverse events. By years 2 and 3, there were no documented treatment-related uses of epinephrine. Overall compliance was high, at 96.9 percent.

“Data presented here suggest that EPIT may represent a persistent and durable treatment option, on a background of being well tolerated. Moreover, EPIT has minimal impact or restrictions on daily activities and lifestyle and is easy to use, resulting in high compliance rates,” researchers said.

*PEPITES Open-Label Extension

**Peanut EPIT Efficacy and Safety