when to take the vaccine if taking biologics

[nofun]

I am on Entyvio with infusions every 2 months. My doctor recommended to take the vaccine one month after the infusion. I guess the idea is to have minimal interference between those two medications. I was not able to find any studies that would confirm this. Entyvio site has no information at the moment either.

When are you taking your covid vaccine if you are on immunosuppressant drugs?

 

[Lisa]

I had my first shot 2 weeks before my Remicade infusion, and the 2nd shot 1 week after - this was due to scheduling and I had no issues. In fact I do have antibodies as shown in blood testing a month after my second shot. I received the Pfizer vaccine.

If you are on a 2 month rotation and are getting Pfizer or Moderna, make sure you take into consideration when the second shot will be given.

Lisa

 

[Scipio]

Most of the medical articles and big-name IBD docs recommend to take the vaccine as soon as you can get it, regardless of the timing of your biologic treatments.

I tried to play the timing game myself in getting my vaccination. I got the Moderna dose #1 about halfway through my 8-week Stelara injection interval - which meant that vaccine dose #2 should have come just before my next Stelara dose. I was planning to delay the Stelara a week or so to give the vaccine time to kick in. But my plan was thwarted by the erratic vaccine supply; the vaccine site cancelled and rescheduled my dose #2 for some uncertain later date. I didn't dare delay my Stelara too long for fear of falling out of Crohn's remission. I ended up finally getting the vaccine about a week after my Stelara dose when the Stelara concentration was no doubt pretty high. But the research says that IBD patients still respond to the COVID vaccine pretty well even on on biologic therapy:

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/92231

 

[Mountaineer01]

My GI and GP specifically told me NOT to take the vaccine. It has not been studied or demonstrated on people with Crohn's or who take immuno-suppressors and potential interactions and long term effects are not known. Plus, many of us with Crohn's also have secondary conditions that accompany it already.

Caveat Emptor.

 

[Kannassee]

I asked that question to my Dr. during my last appointment and he told me that it does not matter, but at the end I did not get the shot since I did a test for antibodies and I still have a lot of antibodies in my blood. So supposedly its not a problem according to my GI with Remicade. I am going to have my third Remicade infusion in two weeks.
However with other biologics it may be an issue.

 

[Lisa]

My GI and GP specifically told me NOT to take the vaccine. It has not been studied or demonstrated on people with Crohn's or who take immuno-suppressors and potential interactions and long term effects are not known. Plus, many of us with Crohn's also have secondary conditions that accompany it already.

Caveat Emptor.

Interesting..... on a side note, I'm enrolled in 2 different studies, one for the effect of the vaccine on people with IBD and the other is the PreventCovid study. I've already posted some info on my results, and I'll be getting blood drawn again in a week or two which will show the level of antibodies I have.