Phadia Announces Commercial Availability Of Peanut Allergen Component Tests
Phadia, the allergy and autoimmune disease diagnostics developer, Tuesday announced that the uKnow Peanut Test, its peanut allergen component test, is now commercially available in the United States through the Phadia Immunology Reference Laboratory.
FDA clearance of the individual peanut component tests, announced in May, brings these cutting-edge new in vitro allergy tests to clinicians nationwide.
The uKnow Peanut Test reports specific IgE results to five FDA cleared peanut allergen components in addition to carbohydrate cross-reactive determinants, a laboratory developed test.
Severe peanut allergies can cause fatal anaphylactic reactions. As a result, every parent fears the possibility that their child will be diagnosed with peanut allergy, envisioning the life-threatening nature of the allergy and the significant dietary and other restrictions required to keep their children safe. With the uKnow Peanut Test, physicians can now detect the allergic sensitization to the specific allergen components within the whole peanut to help assess the risk that a patient will experience a severe anaphylactic reaction upon exposure to peanut.
Current literature available on peanut allergy points to the protein Ara h 2 as one of the key culprits in producing anaphylaxis. Sensitization to some other proteins within the peanut may not be as relevant to the risk of more severe allergic reactions. In addition, symptoms due to cross-reactivity to allergens such as birch pollen can often mimic sensitization to peanut when traditional diagnostic testing using the whole peanut extract is performed. A study published last year in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (Custovic, et.al.) estimated that nearly 80 percent of children diagnosed with peanut allergy were not truly allergic. In the study, results from Phadia's peanut allergen component tests were 95 percent correlated to an allergic reaction.
Phadia is based in Uppsala, Sweden and has research operations in the city of Portage.
Physicians and patients can learn more about the uKnow Peanut Test at www.uKnowPeanut.com or call (800) 346-4364.
