Strong results for ALK-Abello's Grazax

Danish drugmaker ALK-Abello says that new data on its tablet-based hay fever immunotherapy, Grazax, demonstrate highly-significant results, with a 43% reduction in rhinoconjunctivitis symptoms and use of symptomatic medications down 68% from the very first day of the grass pollen season, compared with placebo (p>0.0001).

The firm noted that the agent, which is the first tablet-based sublingual immunotherapy treatment to be developed for approval across Europe, also prodcued an 82% response rate, much higher than the 49% increase seen with placebo. The results were presented at the annual congress of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, held in Vienna, Austria.

Claus Bachert, an ear, nose and throat specialist from the University of Ghent, Belgium, said he was "excited" by these "important results." He noted that, "while symptomatic medications for treating the eye and nose symptoms of allergy are generally available to grass allergy sufferers everywhere, the accessibility to causal immunotherapy has been limited. The widespread variations in the availability of specialist allergy services across Europe have limited access to effective treatment for grass allergy to only very few people with many waiting in line. With Grazax, we now have a treatment that can be quickly and simply administered at home by the patient."