Background

Pregnancy management in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) treated by Natalizumab (NTZ) is challenging because of the risk of disease reactivation after treatment discontinuation.

Objectives

To compare clinical disease activity (annual relapse rate) during and after pregnancy among three therapeutic approaches: continuation of NTZ all along the pregnancy and the postpartum, discontinuation of NTZ in the second trimester and discontinuation of NTZ before pregnancy.

Methods

Data were collected from the French MS registry OFSEP (Observatoire Français de la Sclérose en Plaques). We included patients with relapsing-remitting MS who started a pregnancy between 6/2013 and 9/2018 while taking NTZ, or within six months after its suspension. 3 groups were compared : continuation of NTZ throughout pregnancy and postpartum (Group 1), 3 to 6 months of exposure to NTZ during pregnancy (Group 2) and suspension prior to pregnancy (Group 3). Annual relapse rate (ARR) during 2 years (9 months before and 15 months after preganncy onset) was the primaty outcome and effect on EDSS and MRI were secondary end-points.

The main analysis was performed using a negative binomial regression with the follow-up duration as the offset term. Univariate and multivariate anlyses after adjustment for baseline variables (age, EDSS, ARR in the year before starting NTZ, first-line patient on NTZ vs. second-line patient).

Results

117 patients from 27 centers* were included. Baseline mean age was 31,5 y, median EDSS was 2.0 and mean duration of disease was 7,89 y. The mean ARR were respectively 0.078 +/- 0.24 in Group 1, 0.308 +/- 0.43 in Group 2 and 0.456 +/- 0.63 in Group 3 during the observation period and was significantly higher in Groups 2 and 3 as compared with ARR in Group 1 (p=0,007). The risk of relapses was 4 times higher in Group 2 versus Group 1 (p=0,014) and 6 times higher in Group 3 versus Group 1 (p=0,001).

Multivariate analyses did not show any effect of the adjustment variables.

Evaluation of safety outcomes on the mother and the fetus is in progress.

* Investigators: AR, JCO, CD, PB (Bordeaux), SD, BA, AR, AM, CB, JP (Marseille), MD, S Pitton (Nancy), JD (Strasbourg), TM (Dijon), JC, D Biotti (Toulouse), OC, M Vaillant (Grenoble),E Berger (Besançon), D Laplaud (Nantes), G Defer (Caen), I Patry (Corbeil-Essonnes), P Vermersch (Lille), P Labauge (Montpellier), O Bourre (Rouen), B Stankoff (Paris-Saint-Antoine), A Créange (Créteil), P Cabre (Fort-de-France), E Thouvenot (Nîmes), T De Broucker (Saint-Denis), C Papeix (Paris-Salpêtrière), P Clavelou (Clermont-Ferrand), O Gout (Paris-F.Rothschild), A Montcuquet (Limoges), C Lebrun (Nice), O Heinzlef (Poissy) N Maubeuge (Poitiers).

Conclusions

Continuation of Natalizumab during all three trimesters of pregnancy is associated with a lower risk of relapses as compared with discontinuation before the pregnancy or even during the second trimester.

Safety data is being collected.

Background

Satralizumab, a humanized, monoclonal recycling antibody that targets the interleukin-6 receptor, reduced patients’ risk of NMOSD relapse in the double-blind (DB) periods of two randomized, phase 3 clinical trials in NMOSD: SAkuraSky (satralizumab in combination with baseline immunosuppressants; NCT02028884), and SAkuraStar (satralizumab monotherapy; NCT02073279).

Objectives

To assess the efficacy of satralizumab over a longer period of treatment, using data from the SAkura studies’ open-label extension (OLE) periods.

Methods

Patients entering SAkuraSky/Star were randomized to receive satralizumab 120mg or placebo at Weeks 0, 2, 4, and Q4W thereafter. After completing the DB period or experiencing a relapse, patients could enter the OLE period (same satralizumab dosing as DB period). The primary endpoint of both studies was time to first protocol-defined relapse (PDR) in the DB period, adjudicated by a Clinical Endpoint Committee (CEC). In this analysis, which includes OLE data (CEC adjudication unavailable), we assessed time to first investigator-reported PDR (any relapse considered by the investigator to meet PDR criteria) in the combined DB+OLE periods, using a pooled population from both studies.

Results

Overall, 179 patients were randomized to treatment (satralizumab n=105; placebo n=74), of whom 166 received ≥1 dose of satralizumab in the combined DB+OLE period. The median (range) satralizumab exposure in the DB period was 96.1 (8–224) weeks, and in the combined DB+OLE was 131.9 (13–276) weeks.

In the combined DB+OLE, patients originally randomized to satralizumab had a 51% lower risk of investigator-reported PDR vs those originally randomized to placebo (HR [95% CI] 0.49 [0.31–0.79]; P=0.002); the risk reduction was more pronounced in AQP4-IgG seropositive patients (66% risk reduction; HR [95% CI] 0.34 [0.19–0.62]; P<0.001). Patients who switched from placebo to satralizumab upon entry into the OLE period were included in the placebo group for this analysis, which likely reduced the observed treatment difference between satralizumab and placebo compared with the DB period.

No patients randomized to satralizumab withdrew from the OLE period due to a relapse, vs four patients who were originally randomized to placebo. The safety profile of satralizumab in the OLE was consistent with the DB period.

Conclusions

Across the DB and OLE periods of the SAkura studies, patients randomized to satralizumab had a significantly reduced risk of relapse vs placebo.