Publications
Search our database of publications on vaccines for COVID-19. These include published scientific papers, preprints and policy reports, and all are from teams based in the UK.
Patients with inflammatory rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (iRMDs) are often treated with immunomodulatory or immunosuppressive medications; consequently, they have been excluded alongside other immunocompromised patients from late stages of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trials. SARS-CoV-2 vaccine efficacy in this population is unclear, though initial data are reassuring overall.
However, a slightly lower SARS-CoV-2 immunogenicity of vaccines has been documented in some patients with iRMD. Some common rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease (RMD) medications have been highlighted as possible influential factors on immunogenicity, particularly rituximab (RTX), mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), methotrexate (MTX), abatacept and glucocorticoids.