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Patients taking ocrelizumab (Ocrevus) or fingolimod (Gilenya) for treat multiple sclerosis (MS) have higher rates of COVID-19 infection and hospitalization before and after COVID vaccination, compared with those taking other treatments, a nationwide study in England found.
The study draws on a database that includes every patient with MS in England treated with a disease modifying therapy (DMT) and national data on rates of COVID infection, hospitalization, mortality, and vaccination in those patients.
It's the latest work to suggest varying levels of vaccine efficacy based on DMT use and is the first known study to offer this level of detail on the subject.
"What is obvious is that current vaccination protocols for these DMTs are not really working properly," lead investigator Afagh Garjani, MD, clinical research fellow at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, told Medscape Medical News.
Although the differences in infection rates and efficacy are significant in those two DMTs, the overall infection and hospitalization rates were low, Garjani notes, offering further evidence that vaccines are effective in most patients with MS.
The findings were presented at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2022 Annual Meeting.
