Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prescription of disease-modifying therapy for multiple sclerosis in England: a nationwide study

The provision of multiple sclerosis (MS) services in England was profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Specialist staff were re-deployed to frontline services, social distancing measures resulted in reduced access to diagnostics and hospital facilities for infusion treatments, and concerns were raised over the safety of immunosuppressive disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). The Association of British Neurologists issued guidance in March 2020, advising that the risk from COVID-19 may potentially be increased with fingolimod, ocrelizumab, alemtuzumab and cladribine treatment in people with MS, due to the immunosuppressive mechanism of action of these drugs1. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.