Over his 20-season long career in the NFL, football lovers watched quarterback Drew Brees break records, lead the New Orleans Saints to their first Super Bowl win and cement his legacy as a soon-to-be Pro Football Hall of Famer. What fans didn’t see on the field, however, was his journey navigating severe food allergies.
Brees teamed up with ARS Pharmaceuticals last month to spread the word of its Neffy nasal spray, a needle-free epinephrine option used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions. Although the athlete manages his day-to-day by avoiding foods that could spark an allergic reaction, he emphasizes the importance of being prepared as “the risk of allergic reactions never really goes away,” Brees said in an ARS release. “Which is why my doctor prescribed Neffy.”
The former football player is one of about 40 million people in the U.S. affected by type 1 allergic reactions, of which 33 million have food allergies. Epinephrine is the only medicine known to stop anaphylaxis, but hesitance or fear around the needle injection that standard EpiPens require could delay emergency treatment.
“For most people, taking a needle and jabbing yourself with that is a bit scary, especially compared to the ease of use when it comes to the Neffy nasal epinephrine spray,” Brees explained in an interview with Fierce Pharma Marketing.
ARS provides an option that is “just so beneficial for so many people,” he added, noting that Neffy is also “easy to carry” and an overall “incredible option.”
Throughout his career, Brees was “constantly” getting tested for allergies, wanting to know how his body would react to anything from different foods to insect bites, he said. As an athlete always vying to perform at a “peak level” on game day, avoiding any sort of allergy risk factors and was top of mind for Brees.
A father of four, this professional athlete mindset of being prepared and aware has “carried over to life after football,” he said.
“Inevitably you're going to have somebody, whether it's you or someone in your family, a loved one, someone you're close to, maybe it's a teammate who's dealing with severe allergies,” Brees said. “The more that we can all be aware of those situations and be able to support them and understand, you know, how to combat that, the better.”
As the ex-Saints player prepares for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 8, many are instead gearing up for back-to-school season or summer camps, where “proactive conversations between patients, caregivers and healthcare providers” about different epinephrine options will be especially relevant, ARS’ co-founder and former CEO Richard Lowenthal pointed out in the release.
Brees’ voice in the education and awareness push helps “elevate the conversation” around severe allergic reactions and brings a “powerful combination of credibility and authenticity to this collaboration,” Lowenthal noted.
“There’s a lot of people who are in that boat,” Brees said, referring to those with severe allergies. “Our ability to support each other and understand that is very key.”
Neffy became the world’s first and only needle-free epinephrine option with its 2024 FDA approval. After collecting $72.2 million in 2025 Neffy revenue from U.S. sales after its first full year on the market, ARS is looking to lock down continued growth with new patients and an expanding global footprint for the med.
The company’s commercial launch has so far included DTC ads highlighting Neffy’s needle-free functionality and a “Get Neffy on Us” campaign that connects prospective users with a virtual provider to prescribe the spray. The medicine is San Diego-based ARS’ first approved product and should support a path to cash-flow break even in 2027, Lowenthal said in a June update.