Pregnancy Outcomes of Maternal Exposure to Ocrelizumab: Riley Bove, MD

Author(s):

The associate professor of neurology at University of California, San Francisco talked about findings from an analysis that assessed the safety of ocrelizumab when administered close to pregnancy. [WATCH TIME: 5 minutes]

WATCH TIME: 5 minutes

"From what we can gather from our best data, we don't see any major risk or safety signal [with ocrelizumab], whether that's about the pregnancy itself, or about how the babies are doing."

The United States prescription information advises for contraception with ocrelizumab (Ocrevus; Genentech) and for 6 months following the latest infusion; however, patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) may have pregnancies during this interval. In a new analysis, findings showed that in utero exposure to ocrelizumab did not increase risk of adverse pregnancy or infant outcomes compared with previous reports and an epidemiological background of both MS and general population.¹ These findings were presented at the 2024 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting, held April 13-18, in Denver, Colorado, by lead author Riley Bove, MD.

As of July 12, 2023, investigators received data on 3253 cumulative MS pregnancies from the Roche safety database (prospectively, n = 2446; retrospectively, n = 800; unspecified, n = 7). Among the prospective pregnancies, 855 (35.0%) had in utero exposure, 575 (23.5%) had no in utero exposure and 1016 (41.5%) had unknown exposure. Of 855 prospective pregnancies exposed in utero, 512 had known outcomes including 431 (84.2%) live births, 4 (0.8%) ectopic pregnancies, 38 (7.4%) elective terminations, 38 (7.4%) spontaneous abortion, and 1 (0.2%) stillbirth.

Bove, associate professor of neurology at University of California, San Francisco, sat down with NeurologyLive® at the meeting to further discuss the findings related to pregnancy outcomes in women exposed to ocrelizumab. She also spoke about the areas that may require further data collection and monitoring, especially concerning infant outcomes. Additionally, Bove talked about some recommendations that are suggested for healthcare professionals based on the study’s results.

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