Stopping Ocrevus in stable MS doesn’t seem to raise 2-year risk, study finds

But patients should restart treatment after 2.5 years or disease activity

Written by Marisa Wexler, MS | March 17, 2026

• For people whose MS is stable, stopping Ocrevus for as long as two years may not increase disease activity, a study found.
• Beyond 2.5 years, pausing treatment might increase multiple sclerosis progression.
• Patients should restart Ocrevus if disease activity occurs or after 25-34 months of discontinuation, according to the researchers.

For people with multiple sclerosis (MS) on Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) whose disease is well controlled after at least a year of treatment, discontinuing the infusion therapy does not appear to increase the risk of new disease activity or disability progression for about two years.

That’s according to a new retrospective study from Germany, in which researchers investigated the likelihood of such outcomes among individuals with MS with stable disease who stopped taking Ocrevus.

However, beyond about two to 2.5 years after discontinuation, patients may be at increased risk of MS activity if they don’t restart treatment, the team found.

The findings were detailed in “Discontinuation of ocrelizumab in multiple sclerosis: reoccurrence of disease activity,” a study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Ocrevus is an approved disease-modifying therapy for relapsing forms of MS and primary progressive MS. Administered by infusion into the bloodstream every six months, the treatment works by depleting B-cells, immune cells that play a central role in MS-related inflammation.

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