We live in a world where the threat from allergies has never been more widespread. It’s estimated that hundreds of millions of people across the globe have some kind of food allergy. The foods in question are varied, ranging from fish to milk, nuts to eggs.
A French company, DBV Technologies has been working on an epicutaneous solution to both the diagnosis and the treatment of some of the more common food allergies. Epicutaneous simply means the treatment is administered through the skin, in this case, by an adhesive patch called the Viaskin patch.
One of the key advantages of this patch is how easily it can be adapted to treat different allergies. It contains a tiny quantity of the allergen that’s causing the allergic reaction in the patient, in powder form. To date, the firm has developed patches to treat hen’s egg allergy (http://www.dbv-technologies.com/en/viaskin-products/viaskin-egg), cows’ milk protein and peanut allergies. As you can see from the photograph below, they are relatively small and can be put on and taken off when desired. As yet they are at the development stage, with clinical trials currently being held.