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Article History

Received: 17 January 2018

Accepted: 24 April 2018

First Online: 25 May 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The study was approved by the local ethics committee (no. 1322-2012), and all patients gave written informed consent.

: Participants gave written informed consent for publication.

: MWH has received travel grants for attending meetings from Novartis and Bayer HealthCare, none related to this study. CCG received speaker honoraria and travel expenses for attending meetings from Biogen, Genzyme, Novartis Pharma GmbH, and Bayer HealthCare, none of these related to the current study. HW receives honoraria for acting as a member of Scientific Advisory Boards and as consultant for Biogen, Evgen, MedDay Pharmaceuticals, Merck Serono, Novartis, Roche Pharma AG, Sanofi-Genzyme, as well as speaker honoraria and travel support from Alexion, Biogen, Cognomed, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Gemeinnützige Hertie-Stiftung, Merck Serono, Novartis, Roche Pharma AG, Sanofi-Genzyme, TEVA, and WebMD Global. He is acting as a paid consultant for Abbvie, Actelion, Biogen, IGES, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi-Genzyme, and the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Society. His research is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG), Else Kröner Fresenius Foundation, Fresenius Foundation, Hertie Foundation, NRW Ministry of Education and Research, Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Studies (IZKF) Muenster and RE Children’s Foundation, Biogen GmbH, GlaxoSmithKline GmbH, Roche Pharma AG, Sanofi-Genzyme. None of these is related to the present publication. His research is also funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). MS has received honoraria for scientific lectures or consultancy from Alexion, Bayer HealthCare, Biogen, Baxalta/Shire, CSL Behring, Grifols, MedDay, Merck-Serono, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi-Genzyme, and Teva. His institution received research support from Bayer HealthCare, Biogen, Genzyme, Merck-Serono, Novartis, and Teva. None of this was related to this project. CH is incorporator and head of Zellkraftwerk GmbH. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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