Are injections to keep food allergies under control a lifelong prospect? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Food allergies are very often multiple and begin in childhood. Does this mean the newly approved omalizumab, given by injection, must be taken for the rest of someone’s life? Robert Wood, principal investigator on the study used by the FDA to approve the drug and an allergy expert at Johns Hopkins, says maybe.

Wood: Age doesn’t mean anything specific because for one family the highest risk might be the preschool age years. Another family might be the school age years, I just can't imagine sending her off to kindergarten that's so dangerous. The time that it's clearly most dangerous is college. We do see people who are very successfully avoiding their foods through the school age years and the family is more worried about what's going to happen in high school. Then college is a whole different story when you're letting someone else prepare your food so the age is a big factor.  :30

Wood notes that just like oral medicines to control allergies, omalizumab’s effects will wear off over time. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.