The trial is being conducted at 30 allergy specialty centers across the US and will enroll approximately 458 patients. Participants must be ages 18-50 and have a history of moderate to severe allergic rhinoconjunctivitis attributable to short ragweed pollen for at least two years. Patients with a history of mild intermittent asthma are eligible. The study will last approximately seven months.
Robert Esch, Greer’s executive vice president of R&D, said: “Our primary objective is to demonstrate that sublingual-oral immunotherapy (SLIT) using short ragweed extract prior to and during ragweed season reduces allergy symptoms and the need for anti-allergy medications. In addition to the symptom reduction scores, we will also conduct blood tests to determine if SLIT increases ragweed-specific antibody levels which would signal the presence of the same immunological markers that we see with traditional injection immunotherapy.”