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Gov’t Approves Pill to Replace Allergy Shots

Allergies, eyes
(Photo : Flickr: parrchristy)

No more prick in the arm for grass pollen allergy sufferers. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new pill that treats watery eyes and the sniffles the same way allergy shots do.

Oralair, is a new drug that helps allergy suffers build a resistance to the grass pollen allergy over time by placing a once-daily pill under the tongue until it dissolves.

The pill was designed by Stallergenes, a French drug company, to provide a take-home alternative to conventional allergy shots, which traditionally have to be administered at a certified clinic.

According to the FDA, Oralair works much like allergy shots. A form of immunotherapy, allergy shots and Oralair alike expose allergy sufferers to small amounts of allergens at a time, in order to help decrease immune system sensitivity to the allergens, and reducing allergic symptoms.

Stallergenes proudly boasts that Oralair is the first immunotherapy treatment that be taken home by patients with a prescription. After the first treatment is taken in a doctor's office or allergy clinic, where professionals can watch for adverse effects, patients can then take the drug home with them for a more convenient treatment regimen.

According to an FDA press release, Oralair was approved by federal regulators after the drug was evaluated in Stage III trials involving approximately 2,500 participants across the United States and Europe. Over the course of a single grass-pollen season, patients taking the pall experienced a 16 to 30 percent reduction in symptoms and the need to take antihistamines, compared to those who received a placebo.

Currently, Oralair is the only under-the-tongue immunotherapy option for allergy sufferers, and only helps patients with a grass-pollen allergy. Still, the very fact that the drug was approved by U.S. federal regulators promises more options for immunotherapy and allergy treatment in the future.

The FDA publically announced Oraliar's approval on April 2. 

Apr 02, 2014 01:28 PM EDT

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