French Biotech Wins Breakthrough-therapy Tag for Peanut Allergy Patch

April 15, 2015

France's DBV Technologies announced that it was granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the U.S. FDA for its Viaskin Peanut patch following positive Phase IIb trial results. 

Viaskin is an electrostatic patch which administers an allergen directly onto the superficial layers of the skin to activate the immune system by specifically targeting antigen-presenting cells without allowing passage of the antigen into the bloodstream.

DBV's Phase IIb study demonstrated that the Viaskin patch  boosted the amount of peanut protein it took to elicit an allergic reaction by at least 10-fold, particularly in children younger than 12.