FAI versus Curex, from Curex

When speed under supervision matters most and the logistics genuinely work. That means a family within reach of Long Beach, the Vista/San Diego offices, or the New Jersey clinic scheduled to open September 15, 2026; a schedule that can absorb 4–6 in-person visits a year for 2.5–4 years; and a budget that carries $979–$1,079 a month plus labs, materials, and travel. In-person supervision lets clinicians dose more aggressively than any at-home program responsibly can, and FAI runs supervised food challenges at a scale it puts at 56,000+ per year. Families publicly describe reaching unrestricted eating on the program. That is a genuine, category-level advantage of clinic care, and for the family it fits it is the right choice.

It is the clinic's own claim, and it applies to patients who complete the Tolerance Induction Program — attrition data has not been released, so the denominator is unknown. Undark's April 2021 investigation quoted academic allergists, including Hugh Windom and Philippe Bégin, publicly doubting the figure, and reported that the main supporting study covered 51 patients, was retrospective, had no control group, and appeared in an open-access journal after reportedly being declined by more than six larger journals. A July 2021 Change.org petition (312 signatures) asked the clinic to publish safety and outcome data. Ask the same denominator questions of every program, including ours — the evidence section on this page sets out what the published peanut-SLIT trials show for the treatment Curex ships.

The clinic publishes $979/month for ages 18–25 and $1,079/month for ages 26–50, with a 6-month minimum, and its own cost page estimates the first year at roughly $11,748 on the cash path versus $15,425 on the insurance path. Patient reports run higher: around $15,000 all-in for the first year and $12,000 for the second in recent accounts, against a 2021 baseline near $9,000 in Undark's reporting — treat these as a range. Several families also report an annual fee of about $4,000 after reaching remission, described as not disclosed upfront. The subscription excludes food dosing replacements, SLIT materials, and some labs, and out-of-state families add flights every 8–12 weeks. Families say the United Healthcare Grant helps pay and does not require having UHC insurance. The full breakdown is on our [Food Allergy Institute cost page](/learn/food-allergy-institute-cost).

Families debate exactly this in public threads. TIP is genuinely proprietary in structure: it starts with structurally similar non-allergenic proteins before the allergen itself, is personalized from an extensive diagnostic workup, combines SLIT and OIT, and targets a "food freedom" endpoint with lifelong maintenance quotas — patients describe 20 peanuts a day or 3 large nut servings a week. Skeptics counter that conventional OIT programs also offer food-freedom endpoints. What is verifiable either way: TIP is a practice protocol, not an FDA-approved product, and since Palforzia's withdrawal on July 31, 2026, no FDA-approved food immunotherapy exists — every program in this market, FAI's and ours alike, is off-label.

No — and clinic programs are not overkill either; the framing war in both directions is marketing, not medicine. Food SLIT is allergy immunotherapy, the same disease-modifying category with 100+ years of clinical use since 1911, and the protocol Curex follows is the La Crosse Method, in clinical use in Wisconsin since 1970. It uses much smaller, precise doses held under the tongue, where the effect comes through the sublingual mucosa — swallowed, the same dose would be ineffective, which is why SLIT doses are never simply eaten. It is gentler and generally somewhat slower than clinic OIT, with fewer side effects, and that is precisely why more patients stay on it through graduation — the evidence section on this page gives the trial figures.

There is no current published figure. Journalism from 2019 reported roughly 1,350 families waiting about 13 months, and parents from the 2018–2021 era describe waits of 1.5–2 years. The 2021 transparency petition alleged that $100,000 donations allowed wealthy patients to bypass the waitlist — an allegation that remains unverified. The New Jersey clinic opening September 15, 2026 is the first outside Southern California and may change the math for East Coast families. Ask the clinic directly for a current estimate in writing.

Sequencing exists in real practice: some families begin sublingual treatment during a clinic waitlist and simply stay on it, and the literature includes a 2024 study of an initial SLIT phase before OIT build-up for higher-risk patients. Movement in the other direction happens too, when a clinic program proves unsustainable — patient threads describe restarts and protocol changes at FAI itself when new allergens are added. This is a conversation for a clinician who sees your case. The [full treatment landscape](/learn/food-allergy-treatment-options) is worth reading before that conversation.

It routes you to in-person assessment first, regardless of which provider you are considering. A history of anaphylaxis or severe, poorly controlled asthma needs a clinician's evaluation before starting any immunotherapy — FAI's, ours, or anyone's — and only that clinician can say whether you may be a candidate for a given protocol. If you want the sublingual route with that assessment in person, Allergy Associates of La Crosse in Onalaska, Wisconsin explicitly treats patients with a history of anaphylaxis and uncontrolled asthma, in person, with the same protocol family Curex ships. Note also that oral food challenges happen in clinic on every protocol, including for Curex patients; no responsible program performs them at home.