"Scientists are inching closer to a drug that may protect peanut allergy sufferers from potentially lifethreatening complications that can occur due to accidental consumption. While the drug is not being hailed as a cure for peanut allergy it has proven successful in building up patients tolerance to peanuts over time lessening the potential for lifethreatening complications. Were excited about the potential to help children and adolescents with peanut allergy protect themselves against accidentally eating a food with peanut in it said allergist Stephen Tilles MD ACAAI former president study coauthor and consulting advisor for Aimmune Therapeutics according to EurekAlert. Our hope when we started the study was that by treating patients with the equivalent of one peanut per day many would tolerate as much as two peanuts. We were pleased to find that two thirds of people in the study were able to tolerate the equivalent of two peanuts per day after nine to  months of treatment and half the patients tolerated the equivalent of four peanuts. FDA WARNS AGAINST HONEY PACIFIERS AFTER TEXAS INFANTS HOSPITALIZED WITH RARE ILLNESS https The results which were presented Sunday at the College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting and published in the New England Journal of Medicine were based on study participants ranging in age from  to  years old. All participants who mostly fell between ages  and  had a peanut allergy but one third received a placebo while the rest were given a peanut protein powder that increased in dose over time. Participants ingested the peanut protein under the supervision of a boardcertified allergist as part of a process called an oral food challenge OFC. Reactions from the oral challenges at the end of the study were much milder than prior to treatment Tilles said according to EurekAlert. On average the participants were able to tolerate a fold higher dose of peanut at the end of the study than they did at the beginning. In addition the symptoms caused by the fold higher dose at the end of the study were milder than the symptoms on the lower dose at the beginning of the study. EXPERTS CHILDREN AT RISK OF LEAD POISONING IN CHATTANOOGA  https With FDA approval this drug would mark the first treatment available by prescription for peanut allergies. The studys authors noted that patients would need to stay on the drug in order to receive protection against the allergy. This is not a quick fix and it doesnt mean people with peanut allergy will be able to eat peanuts whenever they want Jay Lieberman MD vice chair of the ACAAI Food Allergy Committee and study coauthor said according to EurekAlert. But it is definitely a breakthrough. The hope would be to have a treatment available in the second half of . If that happens people who receive and are able to tolerate this treatment should be protected from accidental exposures."