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£2 per day hay fever cure to be launched next month
Last updated at 00:07am on 12.12.06
A £2-a-day tablet that could cure hay fever goes on sale in January.
The daily pills, which rapidly dissolve under the tongue, dramatically reduce the symptoms of hay fever, an allergy that blights the lives of one in four Britons each summer.
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It is thought Grazax tablets, which can be taken at home, may even cure some sufferers.
It is estimated a million Britons with hard-to-treat hay fever may benefit initially, with millions more being prescribed the treatment in later years.
Popped under the tongue once a day during spring and summer, the prescription-only pills are the first tablets to tackle the underlying cause of hay fever rather than just treat the symptoms.
Medicines already on the market, such as antihistamine tablets and steroids, can provide relief but are short-acting and do little to help the worst sufferers.
Immunotherapy, a form of vaccination, in which sufferers are given injections of small doses of pollen, requires the patient to go to a hospital for up to 90 jabs over a three to five-year period.
In contrast, Grazax tablets can be taken at home. Effectively a vaccine in tablet form, they will cost £67.50 for a month's supply - or around £2 a day.
Trials carried out on hundreds of hay fever sufferers in the UK and around Europe showed they worked in four in five people.
They were also more effective than widely-used anti-histamine tablets and steroid nasal sprays, reducing sneezing and easing blocked, stuffy noses and itchy eyes by a third.
While taking Grazax, patients were also 40 per cent less likely to use anti-histamine tablets and nasal sprays to relieve their symptoms.
Researcher Professor Stephen Durham, of Imperial College London and the MRC-Asthma UK allergy research centre, said that pills could provide a welcome alternative for a hard core of sufferers who fail to respond to the treatments currently available.
He said: "One in four people suffers from hay fever. It's not just a runny nose, and it's not something to be sneezed at. It can have a severe effect on quality of life; it interferes with sleep, and interferes with work, and children with hay fever can drop a grade at school."
The pills are also likely to be seized on by those who find immunotherapy doesn't suit - either because they don't have time to go for monthly injections or because they are scared of needles.
Prof Durham said: "I think patients would prefer a pill to an injection. I think patients will find popping a tablet under their tongue a much preferable form of therapy."
Lindsey McManus, of charity Allergy UK, said: "Anything that is going to ease hay fever symptoms can only be described as a real step forward."
Made by Danish drug firm ALK-Abello, the tablets should be taken as a five month course for three years, with the first tablets taken around two months before the hay fever season starts - around late May.
With grass pollen usually causing a problem from late May, that means sufferers would start taking tablets at the end of March. They would then take one a day until pollen levels drop off again - usually in August.
Taken every year for three years, it is hoped they will provide relief for several years after treatment finishes. Some sufferers may even be cured.
The tablets are based on a protein found in pollen and responsible for the over-reaction of the immune system that leads to hay fever.
Giving people regular doses of the protein in tablet form leads to the body building up tolerance to it.
Reader views (1)
That's very good news. For it's not just pollen which cause hay fever, but also the dust from switching on central heating, as winter settles in. In fact hay fever is a dust allergy. In my case, it is also an allergy to perfume, strong cleaning products (bleach) or strong smeling plastics (car seats). Interestingly, I had been referred to an hospital consultant several years ago, and there had been no mention whatsoever of immunotherapy. I was told to get a nasal spray and buy myself an hypollergenic mattress. What a cheek!
- Bdf, London
