One of the most common causes of hay fever is allergy to ragweed pollen. In the United States ragweed grows in the Northeast, Midwest and South and causes symptoms in the late summer and fall. Standard shots given to treat ragweed allergy need to be given regularly for several years in order to work. However, a new version of allergy shots has shown promising results according to a recent study.
Allergy Therapeutics, the specialist pharmaceutical company focused on allergy vaccination, today announces positive results from its Pollinex Quattro Grass Phase III study, G301, the largest controlled allergy vaccine study ever conducted. The study met its primary efficacy endpoint and demonstrated that Pollinex Quattro has statistically significant clinical benefits over placebo.
Allergy Therapeutics intends to use the results to support a Marketing Approval Application in the European Union with a submission planned for Q1 2009. Allergy Therapeutics believes that Pollinex Quattro has the potential to transform the treatment of allergy, changing the lives of patients and providing an important new tool for the specialists who treat them. The worldwide market for allergy treatments is estimated to be in excess of $10 billion.
“This is a landmark study and the most important news in the seventy year history of our Company. This study has delivered decisive proof to clinicians and patients of the value of Pollinex Quattro. It adds to an existing rich pool of data generated on Pollinex Quattro in many thousands of patients over several years and will enable us to file for regulatory approvals in Europe. This product has the potential to redefine the market for allergy products, offering sufferers a safe and effective therapy with a much more convenient
Pollinex Quattro is a four injection therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of allergic conditions which offers same season relief in as little as three weeks after treatment. It is a family of specific standardised vaccines representing a potentially extensive franchise for Allergy Therapeutics and is a novel entrant in the multibillion dollar global allergy market. It is currently available in Europe on a named patient basis.
Allergy vaccination or immunotherapy is an effective way of modifying or avoiding disease by influencing the immune system. It is essentially a reinforcement of the body’s own defence mechanisms and is similar to preventative vaccination against infectious disease; an area of medicine that has met with spectacular success. In allergy vaccination the mechanism is regarded as a correction of the immune system towards a more normal, non-allergic, response.
Allergy vaccination attacks the underlying cause of the problem and provides a patient benefit which is usually long lasting. The World Health Organisation recognises allergy vaccination as the only treatment to target the immunological cause of allergy with the ability to modify disease progression, decreasing symptoms in the short term and offering long term anti-inflammatory benefits which prevent the development of persistent disease. Allergy vaccination, therefore, has the potential of offering patients a cure for their disease.