Free Republic

An existing asthma treatment shows promise for reducing food allergies in children and is one step closer to approval that could come by the end of March. Early data from a federally funded clinical trial showed children who received injections of the monoclonal antibody omalizumab could consume higher doses of peanut, egg, milk and cashew without allergic reactions compared to those who received a placebo. Omalizumab, marketed as Xolair and developed by Genentech and Novartis, has been on the market since 2003 as a treatment for allergy-induced asthma, chronic hives and an inflammatory sinus disease called chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal...

Children with severe asthma should not be given a new injection that can cut the number of severe attacks they suffer, because it is too expensive, the NHS drugs rationing body has said. The drug called omalizumab, marketed as Xolair, is given as a monthly injection by a doctor and has been shown to reduce the number of times a child has a severe attack.