house dust mite, dermatophagoides farinae - Medication Listings

Mite extract is a sterile solution containing the extractables of mite whole bodies in 0.25% sodium chloride, 0.125% sodium bicarbonate, 50% glycerol by volume and 0.4% phenol as a preservative. The mites are grown on a medium of yeast and pork and are handled and cleaned in a manner to remove more than 99% of the food medium. The medium contains no material of human origin. This extract may be administered by the scratch, prick-puncture, or intradermal methods of skin testing for diagnostic purposes and subcutaneously for therapeutic purposes as directed under Dosage and Administration. Intradermal skin tests in patients who were puncture test positive (Sum E ≥ 40 mm) to either D. farinae or D. pteronyssinus extract were performed with extracts of the mite food medium obtained from the same supplier. The results, submitted to the FDA by several manufacturers, were as follows: By intradermal testing, there was 1 positive (Sum E ≥ 20 mm) in 44 individuals at an estimated 1% level of medium content (approximately the same as contained in the mite extract). At a ten-fold increase (estimated 10% medium content), 4 positives in 40 individuals were observed. Two of the individuals who were skin test positive to the mite extract and who also were skin test positive to the medium extract were also skin test positive to an extract of yeast (Saccharomyces sp.) when tested by the puncture method. The extract is standardized by comparing its relative potency by ELISA competition to a U.S. reference mite extract available from the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The U.S. reference extract has been assigned a potency of 10,000 AU/mL based on quantitative skin testing (1).