It is known to be one of the most severe food allergies believed to affect 0.6% of the American population; a potentially fatal food-related allergy that when strikes, can bring a person to the floor in less than 6 minutes - peanut allergy.
Ryan Stamford is a 6-year-old boy whose life is constantly in danger for anything he touches or eat could be life-threatening - a single crumb of the wrong biscuit could instantly send the young boy to anaphylactic shock, dailymail.co.uk features. He suffers from the severe form of the food allergy.
"Ryan's allergy is terrifying, particularly as peanuts are in so many foods," Claire, Ryan's mom, says. "I try to keep an eye on him at all times, but when I'm not there, I worry like you cannot imagine."
Fortunately, things may no longer be as difficult for the mother and her child - there is a new treatment that is designed to help allergy sufferers significantly increase their peanut tolerance, CNN reports.
DBVT Technologies, a small pharmaceutical company based in France, is developing a new product - similar to nicotine patch - that is aimed to address the constant ang growing cases of peanut allergies.
The drug, called the Viaskin Peanut, has recently received a special fast-track testing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is prospected to be available to Americans in the first six months of 2018.
Latest round of testing resulted to a positive outcome where patients allergic to peanuts tolerated an equivalent of four peanuts with the help of the patch. Some, though didn't experience the same results, manifested positive immune system changes suggesting possible peanut desentization in the future.
By the end of this year, Viaskin Peanut will be going into its third phase of trial, suggesting it is far along in the testing stages.
The market for food allergy drugs is estimated to be worth $21 billion a year, probably why another company is also working on a drug for the same purpose.
Formerly Allergen Research Corporation, Aimmune Therapeutics, a private US-based company is working on a pill called AR101, and it received the same fast-track approval from FDA as with Viaskin Peanut.
It's also looking to begin Phase III trials later this year.
