PAPA Trial

The emergence of asthma and allergic disorders as a generational epidemic over the last 30 years has had a major health and socio-economic impact and thus represents a key challenge worldwide. Preventing asthma should be the highest priority, given that it is the most common chronic disease of childhood.

Asthma is common in the UK. It often starts in early childhood and can cause lifelong illness. Children are more likely to develop asthma when their parents or sibling also have asthma. These children show early signs of allergy, such as eczema or food allergy. We cannot currently reduce their risk of developing asthma. 

Allergen immunotherapy is a treatment which allows people to start to tolerate things that trigger their allergies. House dust mite is the most common allergen for children with asthma.

The aim of the PAPA trial is to prevent asthma, in children at high risk of developing asthma, by giving them house dust mite allergen before they develop dust mite allergy or asthma.

PAPA is a multi-centre, parallel arm, randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled trial to establish the efficacy and safety of house dust mite sublingual Immunotherapy (HDM-SLIT) in preventing the development of atopic recurrent wheeze. The trial will compare Acarizax and placebo given sublingually (under the tongue) for 3 years  and aims to recruit 434 high-risk infants aged between 5 to 12 months.