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. 2020 Sep:136:4-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2020.06.017. Epub 2020 Jun 25.

Could anti-CD20 therapy jeopardise the efficacy of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine?

Roch Houot  1 , Ronald Levy  2 , Guillaume Cartron  3 , Philippe Armand  4
Affiliations

Could anti-CD20 therapy jeopardise the efficacy of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine?

Roch Houot et al. Eur J Cancer. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

A vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 might represent the most promising approach to halt durably the current COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that anti-CD20 therapy may jeopardise the efficacy of such a vaccine. This is regrettable because patients receiving anti-CD20 therapy (i.e. those with haematologic malignancies or autoimmune disorders) are particularly at risk of severe COVID-19 and, as such, are the most in need of a vaccine. Here, we review the reasons why anti-CD20 therapy may abrogate or diminish the efficacy of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 and we draw physicians' attention towards this potential risk so that it can be considered when evaluating the risk/benefit ratio of anti-CD20 therapy during the current pandemic.

Keywords: Anti-CD20 antibody; COVID-19; Rituximab; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement R.H. reports receiving honoraria from Bristol-Myers Squibb, MSD, Gilead, Kite, Roche, Novartis, Janssen, and Celgene. R.L. reports receiving honoraria from Apexigen, Beigene, Forty-Seven, Teneobio, Sutro, Checkmate, Nurix, Dragonfly, Quadriga, GigaGen, Abpro, Spolight, Xcella, Immunoscore, and Walking Fish. G.C. reports receiving honoraria from Roche, Celgene, Abbvie, Sanofi, Gilead, and Janssen. P.A. reports receiving honoraria from Merck, BMS, Pfizer, Affimed, Adaptive, Infinity, ADC Therapeutics, Celgene, Morphosys, Daiichi Sankyo, Miltenyi, Tessa, GenMab, C4, Enterome; has received research funding from Genentech, Merck, BMS, Affimed, Adaptive, Roche, Tensha, and IGM.

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