Stelara

[Cheryl Laubacher]

Hello. A Mom of a newborn was using Stelara (ustekinumab) every 3 months during pregnancy. Are there any known effects on the baby? Any that should've been monitored during pregnancy? Any now that the baby is delivered? The med's ability to cross the placenta will help us determine if the baby should receive immunizations.
Thank you,
Cheryl

[admin]

Cheryl:

At this time, we do not have any data that suggests ustekinumab is hazardous to a fetus. The data from the pharmaceutical company thus far seems to suggest it is not hazardous.

At birth, the newborn infant will have a plasma compartment with significant quantities of Ustekinumab as it is transferred from moms plasma through the uterus during the 3rd trimester.
That said, we do not know for certain that it will induce side effects in the infant if exposed to live virus vaccines.

Thus far, we've not encountered many complications from live viral vaccines in young infants exposed in utero to this kind of monoclonal antibodies, so we do NOT recommend withholding of routine vaccinations.

I am, however, a bit uncomfortable with using the rotavirus vaccine in such an infant, as this monoclonal antibody does show up in milk and some might withstand the proteases in the infants gut.

Tom Hale Ph.d.