Perspective Shifts on the Use of MS Meds During Pregnancy

PHOENIX — Two new datasets support the use of potent disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) during pregnancy in women with active multiple sclerosis (MS), reinforcing a growing shift toward treatment when the potential benefit to the mother outweighs the risks.

Both studies — one involving the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody ofatumumab and the other the integrin receptor antagonist natalizumab — are observational, but they provide a foundation for taking a proactive rather than reactive approach to treating pregnant women with active MS, said Riley M. Bove, MD, associate professor of neurology, University of California San Francisco.

Bove emphasized that a “we-don’t-know” approach is no longer acceptable when counseling pregnant women with active disease. As first author of the ofatumumab stud