The pioneering EPD treatment for allergies is under threat from lack of funding and research. Why isn't the pharmaceutical industry more concerned about its demise?

May 2012 Subscribers Newsletter

Ecologist

May 8th, 2012

Welcome to the May Subscribers Newsletter. This month we investigate the complexities of prosecuting corporations accused of plundering natural resources in war; report from Ethiopia on the future of the pastoralist tribes and ask whether we can better use technology to tackle the eco crisis. To access your newsletter log in and scroll down to the bottom of the page

Pharmaceutical industry 'rejoices' at demise of pioneering EPD allergy treatment

Enzyme Potentiated Desensitisation is a groundbreaking treatment for allergy sufferers. But the recent closure of a firm championing EPD leaves its future in doubt. Drug companies and mainstream doctors are unlikely to be mourning, says Charlotte Davis

As I lay on my back, looking up at a warm summer sky, I could hear the bees buzzing in the flowers and the gentle drone of a tractor as it criss-crossed the fields nearby. I lay where I had landed, felled by an allergic reaction. By my side was a spent epi-pen. My body ached from the excessive dose of synthetic adrenalin roaring through my system but at least I was breathing again. I was 19 and glad to be alive.

Like many others, my allergies had started innocuously enough, a little nettle-rash, occasional mysterious swellings, but now something had pushed me over the edge and I was in an anaphylactic spiral from which there seemed no way out.

According to the British Allergy Foundation, one in three people suffer from an allergy at some time in their lives. The numbers...

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