EAACI 2011 Scientific Contribution.pdf - ALK-Abelló Group

Dear Congress DelegateALK welcomes you to the 30 th Congress of the European Academy of Allergology andClinical Immunology in Istanbul. As the world leader in specific allergy management, weare proud to present the results of our activities in the Research & Development area inthis year’s scientific programme. In total, more than 30 abstracts from ALK are acceptedfor presentation at EAACI 2011.In this booklet, you will find the abstracts and posters covering our world leading allergyimmunotherapy products and basic science including information on date and time forpresentations.Among the highlights, you will find a report on patient recruitment and randomisation forthe Grazax ® asthma prevention (GAP) trial in which 1000 children were screened (page22). The collaboration with Merck aiming at introduction of allergy immunotherapytablets (AIT) in North America is featured in abstracts reporting Grazax ® data from apaediatric and an adult trial (pages 6 and 14) conducted by Merck in the US yieldingessentially similar results as those obtained in Europe. Several abstracts report Grazax ®post-marketing safety data, among these a large study including more than 600patients from France (page 18).Dear Congress DelegateThe house dust mite AIT is under development and a dose-finding trial showedsignificant reductions in steroid use needed to control symptoms in patients with mild tomoderate allergic asthma after one year of treatment. One of the abstracts presentedhighlights a subgroup analysis identifying a considerable higher benefit in patients withpartly controlled asthma as compared with the average study population, both withrespect to reduction in steroid use and improvement in quality of life (page 26).New areas for the use of subcutaneous immunotherapy includes initiation withAlutard SQ ® within the pollen season (page 34), and the use of subcutaneousimmunotherapy in children and adolescents using a new fast updosed hypoallergenicformulation (page 36). Sublingual drop immunotherapy is shown to be effective intreatment of respiratory allergy to Alternaria alternata (page 40) as well as non-grasspollens, such as parietaria, olive and ragweed (page 38).11 abstracts highlight the significance of ALK basic research. The topics include newtechnology based on mass spectrometry for identification of allergens as well as studiesof injection site physiology, analyses of human cells including regulatory T-cells andbasophils, mite allergy in China and immunoassays for allergen quantification.We also welcome you to our Company Sponsored Symposium: The advancement ofallergy immunotherapy – translation from clinical evidence to clinical practice inthe 21 st century on Sunday 12 June at 10.30-12.00 hrs. The venue is “Çamlica”.Enjoy the congress and please join us at our stand in the exhibition area to learn moreabout our products and ongoing allergy research activities at ALK.Henrik JacobiExecutive Vice President, Research & Development1