Research collaborative to investigate epicutaneous immunotherapy

DBV Technologies announced it will collaborate with the French National Genotyping Center at the French Alternative energies and atomic energy commission in an effort to conduct further research of DBV’s proprietary epicutaneous immunotherapy, according to a press release.

The companies are aiming to understand the treatment maintenance effect over time and the predictive value of the response to epicutaneous immunotherapy (EPIT) using DBV Technologies’ skin patch, Viaskin Peanut, for peanut allergies in adults and children.

“The partnership … will enable us to better describe the complex and powerful cellular mechanisms and epigenetic modulations induced by EPIT, an immuno-modulating agent,” Pierre-Henri Benhamou, MD, chairman and CEO of DBV Technologies, said in a press release. “As we observed from the early experiments, EPIT appears to be the only method of specific immunotherapy able to confer durable protection in case of accidental exposure to allergens.

“We believe that this is probably due to the ability to influence the immune response to allergens at the genomic level. The aim of this collaboration will be to confirm these first results and extend the research to different allergies in animal models and patients.”

Preliminary data that demonstrated EPIT’s induced modification of DNA methylation status recently were presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology meeting in San Diego. Additional data are expected to be presented at the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology annual congress in June in Copenhagen, Denmark.