Biological therapeutics (biologics) targeting allergic pathways have shown great promise for the treatment of allergic diseases such as food allergy. Biologics encompass a broad range of therapeutics that are produced in living organisms, but the most commonly used biologics in food allergy are antibodies such as omalizumab. At this year’s large international EAACI allergy conference, Dr. Sharon Chinthrajah discussed the most recent advances in the use of biologics for the treatment of food allergy. Most allergic reactions are driven by immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated reactions, so it is no surprise that the IgE-targeting antibody omalizumab is the most well studied biologic in food allergy.

Dr. Chinthrajah highlights the ground breaking clinical trials from the Sean N. Parker Center such as the MAP-X and M-TAX clinical trials which demonstrated the safety and efficacy of using omalizumab to facilitate multi-allergen oral immunotherapy (multi-OIT). Furthermore the MIMIX clinical trial demonstrated that the maintenance of dose during multi-OIT could be lowered without significantly impacting safety or efficacy of treatment, greatly expanding the flexibility of multi-OIT. In addition to discussing these exciting clinical trials performed here at the Sean N. Parker Center, Dr. Chinthrajah also discussed exciting new biologics that have not yet been well characterized in clinical trials but have shown promising pre-clinical results including the next generation anti-IgE antibody ligelizumab and the anti-IL-4 receptor α antibody dupilumab which has shown great promise in other allergic diseases.