Jay M. Portnoy, MD
Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
Full BiographyFourteen-year-old Jayden Johnson experienced his first life-threatening allergic reaction to peanuts when he was only 13 months old.
Avoiding peanuts became a full-time job for the Johnson family, but it was the only way to keep Jayden safe. When he started school, it became even harder to avoid foods containing peanut.
Fortunately, when Jayden was about 10 years old, his allergist at the time began participating in a clinical trial for a new investigational drug to treat peanut allergy called Palforzia.
Given in incremental doses throughout the trial, Palforzia is standardized peanut flour. Jayden started each day by stirring the prescribed dose into pudding, ice cream or smoothies, following up with his allergist every two weeks to determine how well he was doing.
Each time, the allergist increased the dose. The goal was to build up a tolerance to peanut, usually over a four-to-five-month period.
Read how Children’s Mercy and Jay Portnoy, MD, Pediatric Allergist, got involved in Jayden’s clinical trial participation and what the trial results have meant to Jayden and his family.