IVN-birch for birch pollen allergy

Birch pollen allergy is one of a number of environmental allergies that give rise to what would commonly be called ‘hay fever’. The allergy against birch pollen affects about 15 million patients in the USA (23% of the allergic population) and 12 million in Europe (14% of the allergic population). In common with cat dander allergy, it is also poorly served by available subcutaneous specific immunotherapy which is characterized by poor standardization and purity in terms of active ingredients. Major allergen contents in extracts of pollen commercialized by different manufacturers may differ as much as 20-fold, determined by ELISA methods. This makes subcutaneous immunotherapy (SIT) with pollen extracts prone to induce systemic side effects, since proper dosage of the allergen is very difficult, albeit of major importance in SIT.

ImVisioN has selected proteins known to induce the allergic symptoms in most of the affected patients, as the allergen module in the MAT ™-protein. These allergens also appear to be implicated in a number of food allergies and the immunotherapy may therefore be suitable for the treatment of these as well.

Developmental stage

IVN-birch is currently in the research stage and has already obtained promising data in ex vivo studies with blood drawn from allergic patients 1. ImVisioN is currently performing further studies in order to assess potency and efficacy of such potential product candidates.

1 Crameri R.et al.: Design, engineering and in vitro evaluation of MHC class-II targeting allergy vaccines. Allergy. 2007 Feb;62(2):197-206