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A weekly dose of dupilumab, a monoclonal antibody, led to a reduction of symptoms and tissue improvement in young adults and adolescents with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), according to a new study. The study analyzed data from two phase 3 clinical trials. EoE is a chronic food allergy that affects the esophagus, the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach. Triggered by certain foods, the disease occurs when eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, accumulate in the esophagus causing pain and injury. Current treatments for EoE involve food elimination diets, proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), swallowed topical glucocorticoids, and, in some...

Asthma affects hundreds of millions of people around the world, but an experimental vaccine offers new hope to successfully treat this chronic lung disease, linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. So far the prototype vaccine has only been tested in animals, but the researchers now intend to conduct a clinical trial in human patients – with hopes the approach could provide a safe, cost-effective, and long-term way to protect people from allergic asthma attacks. "The idea is to set up in the future a preventive approach for populations at risk of developing a severe form of asthma,"...

A new type of asthma drug meant to attack the underlying causes of the respiratory disease slashed episodes by 87 percent in a mid-stage trial, making it a potential game changer for patients with moderate to severe disease, researchers said on Tuesday. "Overall, these are the most exciting data we've seen in asthma in 20 years," said Dr. Sally Wenzel, lead investigator for the 104-patient study of dupilumab, an injectable treatment being developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and French drugmaker Sanofi. The drug also met all its secondary goals, such as improving symptoms and lung function and reducing the need...