Rare Reactions With Natalizumab Infusion: Yujie Wang, MD

“One piece that's really important is recognizing that if a patient truly has that infusion reaction, and it is consistent, or if it feels like natalizumab is not working well. It's really important to check for natalizumab antibodies, which can come up with a few other of the disease modifying treatments for MS. That really changes the course of things.”

Data from a recent study suggest that natalizumab (Tysabri; Biogen) infusion-related adverse events (AEs) appear to be rare, generally mild, and occur only during the first few infusions in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). These findings were presented virtually at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2021, February 25-27, by Yujie Wang, MD, University of Washington Medical Center.

Wang and colleagues found that, in a dataset that included almost 10,000 infusions, a total of 33 infusion-related AEs (0.34% of infusions), all mild in severity, were recorded in 26 patients (7.8%). The majority of AEs occurred during infusion (77%) rather than the 1-hour post-infusion monitoring, and 92% of AEs occurred within the first 6 months of treatments.

NeurologyLive spoke with Wang to learn more about the findings of her study and the takeaways. She also spoke about future research that she’d like to do in studying natalizumab reactions.

For more coverage of ACTRIMS Forum 2021, click here.

REFERENCE

Wang Y, Gallaro D, Mehta D, et al. Evaluation of nearly 10,000 natalizumab infusions at an academic MS center reveals lack of clinically relevant infusion-related safety events. Presented at ACTRIMS Annual Forum; February 25-27, 2021. Abstract P072