For decades, food allergy management came down to two things: avoid the food, and carry an injectable epinephrine pen in case avoidance failed. That's still true for most people today. But the last six years have quietly reshaped what "treatment" can mean, from the first drug that could reduce reaction severity across multiple foods at once, to a genuinely new way to deliver emergency epinephrine, to a wave of trials trying to combine approaches rather than pick just one.
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What's approved right now
Palforzia (approved 2020, expanded to toddlers in 2024) is peanut protein given in careful, gradually increasing doses to build tolerance. It only works for peanut, and only reduces reaction severity, it doesn't cure the allergy or let someone eat peanuts freely.
Omalizumab (approved in February 2024) is an antibody injection that blocks the immune signal behind allergic reactions generally, rather than building tolerance to one specific food. It's the first option approved for people with more than one food allergy at once.
Neffy (approved August 2024) isn't a food allergy treatment exactly, it's a reimagining of the emergency response every food-allergic person already needs. It's the first needle-free way to deliver epinephrine during a severe reaction, and the first real change in how epinephrine gets delivered in more than 35 years. It's sprayed into one nostril, no injection, no device assembly.
What happened to the first approved option, and why it matters
Palforzia's story is worth knowing. In 2020, Nestlé paid about $2 billion to buy the company that made it, betting the drug would become a huge seller as the first FDA-approved peanut allergy treatment. Three years later, Nestlé sold it off at a big loss. Not because the drug didn't work, but because using it turned out to be a lot for families to keep up with: daily doses, repeated in-office visits to slowly increase the amount, and ongoing monitoring. Stallergenes Greer owns it now. The lesson here isn't that Palforzia failed. It's that a drug can pass every FDA test and still be hard to fit into everyday life, and that gap is exactly what newer approaches are trying to close.
What researchers are studying now
Rather than betting on one approach, the current wave of research increasingly combines them:
- Multi-allergen oral immunotherapy is moving beyond peanut-only options. ADP101 (Alladapt), currently in trials, contains protein from 15 different foods at once, aimed at desensitizing people to several allergens with a single regimen instead of one food at a time.
- Biologics plus oral immunotherapy, combined. The COMBINE trial is testing whether adding dupilumab, a drug already approved for eczema and asthma, on top of omalizumab-assisted multi-food OIT works better than either approach alone. Dupilumab reduces IgE levels by roughly 70% over a year when used this way, and researchers are testing whether that translates into fewer OIT side effects and more durable results.
Not everything succeeds. In January 2026, the FDA declined to approve a different needle-free epinephrine product, a sublingual film called Anaphylm, sending its maker back to the drawing board. Even in a field with real momentum, individual products still fail regulatory review.
Why food allergy research takes time
The multi-food problem. Roughly 45% of people with a food allergy are allergic to more than one food, but most trial designs and, until recently, most approved treatments were built around a single allergen. Testing combinations and multi-allergen products is inherently more complex than testing one food at a time.
The real-world-use problem. Palforzia's commercial story is really a research lesson: a treatment can clear every regulatory bar and still not fit how families actually live. Newer trials increasingly track burden and adherence, not just whether the immune system responds.
The severity-prediction problem. Reaction severity to the same food varies enormously between people and even between exposures in the same person, and researchers still can't reliably predict who will have a mild reaction versus a life-threatening one. This uncertainty is part of why so much current research focuses on reducing severity broadly rather than promising anyone a specific outcome.
Common myths, cleared up
"A food allergy will just cause some hives, it's not that serious."
For many people it's exactly that mild, but for others the same food can trigger anaphylaxis, a rapid, whole-body reaction that can be fatal without quick treatment. Severity isn't fixed and can change over time or between exposures.
"If a food allergy test comes back positive, that's a definite allergy."
Blood and skin tests can show sensitization without a true clinical allergy. An oral food challenge, eating the food under medical supervision, is often needed to confirm a real allergy, especially before ruling one out.
"Once you outgrow a food allergy, it's guaranteed to be gone for good."
Most childhood milk and egg allergies do resolve, but reintroducing a food after a suspected resolution should be done with an allergist's guidance, not tested casually at home.
How to find a food allergy study through our platform
Search current studies by which allergen or allergens they cover, since eligibility is closely tied to that, and by age group, since pediatric and adult trials often differ. As of this writing, currently recruiting studies range from early-stage biologic trials, like RAPT Therapeutics' Phase 2b study of RPT904 for IgE-mediated food allergy, to allergen-specific work like a Phase 1/2 peanut oral immunotherapy trial testing a new molecule called ENP-501. Our food allergy clinical trials page always shows the current live count and full list of recruiting studies. Applying takes about 5 minutes, and a coordinator follows up to confirm whether you or your child is a match.
Common questions
Is Palforzia still available even though Nestlé sold it? Yes. It's manufactured and sold today by Stallergenes Greer, and its approval for ages 1 and up (as of 2024) is unaffected by the change in ownership.
Does neffy replace an epinephrine injector, or is it an addition? For people who qualify by weight, it's approved as a full alternative for emergency treatment, not just a backup. Some people and families choose to carry both.
Can someone with more than one food allergy join a single-allergen trial? Sometimes, if the extra allergies aren't the study's focus, but many multi-food trials specifically exist because single-allergen studies often excluded this group. Eligibility always depends on the specific trial.
What are the symptoms of a food allergy? Symptoms range from mild, hives, an itchy mouth, mild swelling, to severe, difficulty breathing, a sudden drop in blood pressure, and anaphylaxis. The same person can have different symptoms at different exposures, which is part of why severity is so hard to predict.
What are the most common food allergies? In the US, nine foods account for the large majority of allergic reactions: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish, shellfish, and sesame, added to the list in 2023.
Can adults develop a food allergy they didn't have as a child? Yes. Adult-onset food allergies are real and increasingly recognized, especially to shellfish and tree nuts, even in people with no childhood history of food allergies.
Is there a cure for food allergy? Not yet. Current approved options reduce reaction severity or block the allergic response, but none eliminate the allergy permanently the way a cure would.