The researchers based their report on 63 studies on so-called sublingual immunotherapy, which essentially improves your asthmatic wellness by getting traditional allergy injections in the form of pills or drops that dissolve under the tongue. In the same way that the jab works, these pills and drops are designed to desensitise your immune system by exposing it to small extracts of the allergens, until you build up a tolerance.
Right now, no under-the-tongue allergy products are approved in the United States, but lead researcher Dr. Sandra Lin, an associate professor of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, says that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are currently evaluating the products for American use, and those results will be helpful. In eight of 13 studies that Lin’s team evaluated, patients saw a 40% improvement in symptoms compared to those who received a drug-free placebo or standard medication.
According to Lin, because the allergen extracts used here in Europe are of a different potency, the results from European trials cannot be simply translated to the United States. ‘We need studies to see what are the most effective doses for US patients,’ she said. Dr Harold Nelson, an allergy specialist at National Jewish Health in Denver, who wrote an editorial published with the study, added that pills definitely appeal to US patients over jabs, but FDA approval is still vital before Americans proceed.
Nelson noted that some American doctors already give their patients the extracts approved for allergy injections for use orally, but ‘there’s no guarantee’ it would be the same as the products studied in clinical trials. This is because allergy injections use a mix of different allergen extracts, so US doctors do likewise when giving them as oral medication, but under-the-tongue products used in clinical trials have contained only a single allergen extract, Nelson said. He added that, like allergy jabs, under-the-tongue products take time to work, necessitating daily use for a few years, and cost two dollars or more a day.