The probiotic strain, LGG, may potentially play a role in the treatment of peanut allergy. Prota Therapeutics, a developer of oral immunotherapies to treat food allergies, partnered with Chr. Hansen, a Danish producer of food ingredients, to evaluate LGG in a clinical trial to develop a treatment for allergy. Chr. Hansen says the partnership is in place as of today and strengthens Chr. Hansen's position in an expected market to "grow to 10 billion euros by 2025."

An effective therapy to treat peanut allergies is now a realistic target. Chr. Hansen is the ideal partner for us in this next step, both as the owner of one of the key components in the therapeutic product – LGG – and as a leading expert in microbial solutions,” says Dr. Suzanne Lipe, CEO at Prota Therapeutics.

“Chr. Hansen has demonstrated the capability to deliver a pharmaceutical quality product that can be regulated as a biological therapeutic product. Together with our proprietary peanut protein formulation, we aim to progress this through to commercialization of a treatment for peanut allergies,” she adds.

Thomas Gundelund Rasmussen, Director of Innovation in Human Health and Microbiomas, says the drug will come to the shelves, the process may take some time: "It will be approximately three years for the phase three clinical study, followed by discussions with the US. FDA After that, Prota intends to submit a biological license application to the FDA. "

However, he predicts that the company expects that these developments will, “further strengthen the value and demand for LGG outside the Pharma world, thus strengthening our existing probiotics business for non-pharma applications.”

Continuing clinical trials

Numerous studies have highlighted the therapeutic potential of specific bacteria in preventing and treating metabolic, gastrointestinal and other diseases. Investigating particular bacteria for the treatment of food allergies is an area that has recently gained momentum.

Prota Therapeutics is pioneering a new form of oral immunotherapy treatment. It combines Chr. Hansen’s specially formulated LGG probiotic strain, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, with targeted doses of proprietary formulations of peanut protein. The procedure is designed to reprogram the immune system’s response to peanuts and eventually develop tolerance.

Building upon earlier trials conducted at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Prota Therapeutics is progressing towards a large-scale Phase III clinical trial, under a US Investigational New Drug Application (IND).

The aim is to commercialize a medicinal product using a new pharmaceutical-grade therapeutic dosage form for treating peanut allergy and to explore indications for treating other food allergies.

“Chr. Hansen has the ability to maximize the value of a probiotic strain through our deep experience in microbial process development and formulation, our focus on quality, and our global reach. The partnership with Prota Therapeutics is part of our strategy to become the partner of choice for companies wanting to develop new generations of therapeutic microbes,” says Christian Barker, Executive Vice President, Health & Nutrition at Chr. Hansen.

Earlier this month, Christoffer Lorenzen, EVP Food Cultures & Enzymes at Chr. Hansen stated that they were excited about the use of microorganisms and the huge potential they hold for innovation.

“We want to enter into more partnerships in the food sector and to cater to dialogs related to health and wellness where the customer’s emphasis is on quality. Additionally, as a company, we have a lot of the focus on health and wellness in our Health and Nutrition business unit where we are working on both within the dietary supplements and infant nutrition space and also in the human microbiome space, on how a good bacteria impacts human health,” he added.

The LGG strain is the world’s best documented probiotic strain and has been used in food and dietary supplements since 1990. Chr. Hansen fully acquired LGG from Valio in 2016, to further strengthen its microbial platform.

Additionally, earlier this month they reported that their Food Cultures and Enzymes unit helped bolster their solid organic overall revenue growth of nine percent.

Food allergies

Approximately 220-250 million people globally suffer from food allergies, an increase of 350 percent over the past 20 years. Furthermore, peanut allergy is the most common cause of anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction, and one of the most common causes of death from food allergy. More than 3 million Americans suffer from peanut allergy3 resulting in a global peanut allergy therapeutics market estimated to reach more than US$10 billion by 2052.