Dr. Swanson: Dupilumab/Vaccines Question Has Been Answered

The biggest remaining question about dupilumab has been answered by the allergy and immunology community, Practical Dermatology Associate Medical Editor Elizabeth (Lisa) Swanson, MD, FAAD, said at the Winter Clinical Hawaii 2025 meeting in Waikoloa Village, Hawaii.

“The only realy question that remains is: What do we do with vaccines?” Dr. Swanson said. “Live vaccines. Well, most of us [pediatric dermatologists] give the dupi, a month later we give the vaccines, a month after that we restart dupi. So, they are skipping just one injection. But we have a recent article from our allergy/immunology colleagues looking at the immunology of live vaccines [and] the immunology of dupi; they don’t see any reason why we need to be concerned about this.”

An expert Delphi Consensus recommendation published in Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology found that “the available literature on patients who received vaccinations while using dupilumab overall suggests that live vaccines are safe and that the vaccine efficacy, in general, is not affected by dupilumab.”¹ The panel agreed that the use of vaccines in patients receiving dupilumab was likely safe and effective.¹

“The label will always be the label,” Dr. Swanson said, “but it’s nice to have the immunologists’ input on the matter.”

1. Lieberman JA, Chu DK, et al. A systematic review and expert Delphi Consensus recommendation on the use of vaccines in patients receiving dupilumab: A position paper of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2024;133(3):286-294. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2024.05.014. Epub 2024 Jun 5. Erratum in: Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2025;134(2):242-243. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2024.10.023.