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@DonJaime26 

Last reply

DonJaime26

Vaccine Alternatives for Gilenya

Hi everyone, this is my first post here on Shift. It's good to be here! I'm posting because my wife has MS and she takes Gilenya daily as part of her treatment plan. As many of you may know, data shows that Gilenya doesn't allow the COVID vaccines to produce antibodies. We're trying to find ways to improve her protection against the virus. Does anyone have alternative protection methods? Has anyone received monoclonal antibodies as a means of protection, or something similar? I'd love to know what options are out there. We live in CA, so that may be a factor as well. Thank you to anyone who has some insight or suggestions. Greatly appreciated!
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@mblafreniere
@mblafreniere
 

I'm not on Gilenya, but on Ocrevus; that said, the same had been said about it. My neuro advised to temporarily halt treatment, get the vaccines and wait about a month for my body to make some antibodies, then get back on treatment. The idea being that while the treatment may destroy some if not most antibodies created, some will remain and that's better than no protection.

@DonJaime26
@DonJaime26
 

Thanks for the input! I'm glad to hear you were able to work alongside your doctor and have some periods of developing antibodies. I'm not sure my wife can pause her Gilenya treatment as there's a severe risk of disability resulting from a relapse. My understanding is that Gilenya is "must take daily" drug that is lifelong (more or less). So she'll continue to take Gilenya, and we are exploring what other options might help us out.