Peanut allergy treatment born in the Triangle getting close to FDA approval

Noah Schaffer was among the children involved in early trials, first through Duke University and later through the University of North Carolina. When he was just a year old, Noah took a bite of a peanut butter cookie and had an immediate reaction.

"His ears swelled twice as big, lips, hives, all over his face," his mother Robyn Smith said.

In 2007, joined that trial. A tiny amount of peanut protein was mixed into his foods and increased over time. The goal was to reduce the severity of allergic reactions.

The earliest studies were led by pediatric immunologist Dr. Wesley Burks, now a dean of the UNC School of Medicine. Burks says the results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are promising.

"The results of the study show that patients that were treated with this new biologic peanut product can tolerate at least two peanuts after treatment for several weeks and months," he said.

A similar approach was used in a recent multi-national phase 3 study through the company Aimmune Therapeutics.

"And the results are similar to what we saw a decade ago," Burks said.

Burks says the Aimmune Therapeutics study will likely to lead FDA approval in the next 12 to 18 months.

The results offer a great reassurance for parents worried about their children who've had an allergic reaction in the past.

"There is comfort that they are not going to have an accidental, severe, life-threatening reaction eating something. That is significantly changed with the results of this study," Burks said.

He said the same concept may be able to accomplish a similar benefit for children with other food allergies.