Richter, Daniel http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6947-8350
Faissner, Simon
Bartig, Dirk
Tönges, Lars
Hellwig, Kerstin
Ayzenberg, Ilya
Krogias, Christos
Gold, Ralf
Article History
Received: 5 July 2021
Accepted: 15 July 2021
First Online: 16 August 2021
Declarations
:
: No informed consent or ethical approval was required for this study because completely anonymized data were used and provided by the German Federal Statistical Office to comply with the German data protection regulations. The latest Good Practice in Secondary Data Analysis recommendations (version 2; 2008) of the German Working Group for the Survey and Utilization of Secondary Data (with representatives from the German Society for Social Medicine and Prevention and the German Society for Epidemiology) and the Working Group for Epidemiological Methods (with representatives from the German Society for Epidemiology, the German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology and the German Society for Social Medicine and Prevention) state in their respective Guideline 1 that “ … recommendation to consult with an ethics committee need not apply to secondary data analyses if all the data protection provisions on pseudo-anonymization of all personal data are fulfilled … and no link to primary data is intended.”
: Not applicable.
: Daniel Richter receives support from the Medical Faculty of Ruhr-University Bochum (FoRUM grant K136–20). Simon Faissner received speaker’s and/or board honoraria from Biogen, BMS, Celgene, Novartis and Roche and grant support from Ruhr-University Bochum, DMSG, Stiftung für therapeutische Forschung and Novartis, none related to this work. Dirk Bartig received orders for analysis of the German Diagnosis-Related Groups system from Boehringer Ingelheim and Sanofi Aventis. Lars Tönges LT has received travel funding and/or speaker honoraria from Abbvie, Bayer, Bial, Desitin, GE, UCB, Zambon and consulted for Abbvie, Bayer, Bial, Desitin, Stadapharm, UCB, Zambon in the last 3 years.Kerstin Hellwig: received speaker’s and/or research support from Biogen, Bayer, Teva, Sanofi Genzyme, Novartis, and Roche and grant support from the Innovation Fond, DMSG and DFG, all not related to this work. Ilya Ayzenberg has received travel grants and speaker honoraria from Biogen Idec and Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation, Alexion, Santhera, Merck, served on scientific advisory boards for Roche and Alexion, and received research support from Diamed, none related to this study. Christos Krogias received speaker honoraria or travel grants for scientific meetings from Bayer Vital and Daichii Sankyo. Ralf Gold serves on scientific advisory boards for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Biogen Idec, Bayer Schering Pharma, and Novartis; has received speaker honoraria from Biogen Idec, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Bayer Schering Pharma, and Novartis; serves as editor for Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Diseases and on the editorial boards of Experimental Neurology and the Journal of Neuroimmunology; and receives research support from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Biogen Idec, Bayer.