Your Ocrevus injection will be given into the layer of fat under the skin, in your stomach area. You’ll have this procedure every 6 months. Your first injection may take place in hospital or it could be carried out at home, depending on your individual circumstances and if your service is able to support this.¹

If you and your medical team decide, you may have your Ocrevus injections at home. Your dose of Ocrevus will be delivered to your home and will be administered by a trained healthcare professional. The healthcare professional will also administer your pre-medications and will have medications at hand, in case you experience any reactions.¹

The injection itself takes about 10 minutes, but before it takes place you’ll be given pre-medication treatments to minimise potential injection reactions, and you’ll be monitored for an hour after your first dose to make sure you don’t have any problems.¹ So, you can expect the treatment to take around 2 hours, though the overall time will vary from one person to another.

A nurse will run through a checklist to ensure you’re OK to have your injection – for example, they’ll check that you don’t have any infections such as flu. At this point, your healthcare professional may choose to run some additional tests before your injection.

Before your Ocrevus injection, you’ll be given other medications to help prevent or reduce possible reactions or side effects such as headache, nausea and itching.¹

These pre-medications will be given to you orally and will include a steroid, an antihistamine, and may also include a drug that reduces fever (an antipyretic, like paracetamol).¹

Your injection will be given by a doctor or nurse who’s experienced in providing Ocrevus treatment.¹

To minimise discomfort, they will make sure the injection is given in an area of your stomach where the skin isn’t red, bruised, tender or hard. They will also avoid any places where you have moles or scars.¹

Your doctor or nurse will watch you closely during the injection, in case you have any side effects.¹ If you do have a reaction to the injection, you may be given medicines to treat it and the injection may need to be temporarily or permanently stopped, depending on the severity of the reaction.¹

After your first injection, your doctor or nurse will continue to monitor you for at least 1 hour, to make sure you’re OK. For future doses, this observation is optional, so your doctor or nurse may decide it’s not necessary.

If your first dose was in hospital, your doctor or nurse may decide to give you your future doses at home, if appropriate for you.¹

Every 6 months, you’ll have another Ocrevus injection. Depending on what your medical team decide, you may have these in hospital or at home.¹ This would involve a nurse coming to your home to give you the injections every 6 months.

If you miss an injection of Ocrevus, talk to your MS team to arrange to have it as soon as possible. Don’t wait until your next planned injection.¹