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Brendan Mullen, a figure skater for Team USA, has always had to pack his own food for international competitions. Mullen has food allergies to eggs, tree nuts and peanuts. Last year, he competed in Japan and Austria with prepackaged meals.
But Mullen, who grew up in Fairfax Station, told the Fairfax County Times that he no longer has to worry so much about food allergies. In February, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the drug Xolair for food allergies. The Monday after the approval, Mullen became the first person in the United States to take the drug. He said he believes his positive experience with the drug “gives great hope” to others who suffer from food allergies.
“Since I started taking this medication, my life has completely changed. I haven’t tried a lot of foods yet, but the foods I used to have allergic reactions to are no longer happening to me,” said Dr. Oral Alpan, Mullen’s allergist at McLean.
Xolair blocks IgE molecules, which are key to allergic reactions. Xolair has been used to treat asthma since the 2000s, and when it was approved, many allergists thought it could also be used for food allergies, Alpan said. But the FDA only approved Xolair for food allergies this year. Although Xolair is not a cure, experts say it is a breakthrough drug for people with allergies.
Alpan said the “nice thing” about Xolair is that “it doesn’t matter what your allergies are” for the drug to work. “It could be peanut, it could be eggs, it could be milk, it could be multiple things, so it protects against all of them,” Alpan said. “It’s not specific to food allergens.”
Maren has several food allergies, and the previously recommended medications were not effective in treating her allergies, but Xolair was able to treat some of her allergies. Maren underwent several tests to see if the medication was working.
Thanks to the medication, Maren says his life has become easier and much less stressful. For example, when he goes to a restaurant, he no longer has to worry about the batter on his chicken tenders or the oil they’re cooked in. Before, he had to ask restaurant servers for details about how the food was prepared, and he could only eat home-made or prepackaged foods.
“In the past, we would just recommend avoiding the thing you’re allergic to. That can be easy if you have just one allergy, like sesame seeds or peanuts,” Alpan says, “but it gets harder when you have multiple allergies, like in Brendan’s case.”
Alpan said Xolair works much faster than other allergy medications — it takes a few weeks to build up immunity to food allergies rather than the months or years that other treatments can take.
Maren said her family often tells her she’s not missing anything to make her feel better. Since starting Xolair, Maren has been focusing on eating baked goods, something she previously avoided, and will soon try peanuts.
“For example, the first time I had a doughnut, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve never had a doughnut in my life,'” Mullen said. “I can’t believe I went years without a doughnut.”
Despite her misgivings about eating peanuts, Maren said she’s excited to try eggs, as the only time she’s eaten peanuts ended up in the hospital.
Thanks to Xolair, Maren is now much more comfortable with her allergies. As she prepares to compete in international figure skating competitions next year, she envisions the day when she won’t have to avoid certain foods when traveling to other countries. She’s looking forward to trying foods from different cultures.
As Mullen and Alpan start using Xolair in the months ahead, Alpan hopes that more people with food allergies will realize that it’s an option.
“I’m honored to be the first to try it,” Mullen said, adding that he believes his attempt and experience “gives great hope to other people with food allergies.”
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