Serono Symposia International Foundation adheres to the guidelines of the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) and all other professional organizations, as applicable, which state that programmes awarding continuing education credits must be balanced, independent, objective and scientifically rigorous. Investigative and other uses for  pharmaceutical agents, medical devices and other products (other than those uses indicated in approved product labelling/package insert for the product) may be presented in the programme (which may reflect clinical experience, the professional literature or other clinical sources known to the presenter). We ask all presenters to provide participants with information about relationships with pharmaceutical or medical equipment companies that may have relevance to their lectures. This policy is not intended to exclude faculty who have relationships with such companies; it is only intended to inform participants of any potential conflicts so that participants may form their own judgements, based on full disclosure of the facts. Further, all opinions and recommendations presented during the programme and all programme-related materials neither imply an endorsement nor a recommendation on the part of Serono Symposia International Foundation. All presentations solely represent the independent views of the presenters/authors.

The following faculty provided information regarding significant commercial relationships and/or discussions of investigational or non-EMEA/FDA-approved (off-label) uses of drugs:

David Bates Grants and contracts: Merck Serono.

Giancarlo Comi Honoraria/consultation fees: Serono Symposia International Foundation, Merck Serono, Novartis, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer Schering, Biogen Dompè.

Mefkure Eraksoy Has provided no information regarding significant relationships with commercial supporters and/or discussion of investigational or non-EMEA/FDA-approved (off-label) uses of drugs as of 23 February 2010.

Douglas S Goodin Grants and contracts: Novartis, Bayer-Schering; honoraria/consultation fees: Bayer Schering, Teva, EMD Serono; speakers’ bureaus: Teva, Bayer Schering, EMD Serono.

Eva Havrdová Educational grants: Bayer, Biogen Idec; honoraria/consultation fees: Bayer, Biogen Idec, Merck Serono, Genzyme, Teva, Sanofi-Aventis, Roche, Pfizer; clinical trial advisory boards: Biogen Idec, Genzyme.

Ludwig Kappos Principal investigator, member or chair of steering committees or advisory boards (in last 12 months) in corporate-sponsored clinical trials in MS and other neurological diseases: Acorda Therapeutics, Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Allozyne, BaroFold, Bayer Health Care Pharmaceuticals, Bayer Schering Pharma, Bayhill, Biogen Idec, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eisai, Elan, Genmab, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Serono, MediciNova, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Santhera Pharmaceuticals, Shire, Roche, Teva, UCB, Wyeth. Dr Kappos has also lectured at medical conferences or in public on various aspects of the diagnosis and management of MS. In many cases these talks were sponsored by non-restricted educational grants from one or more of the above listed companies. Honoraria and other payments from these activities have been exclusively used for funding of research in his department. Research and clinical operations (nursing and patient care services) of the MS Centre in Basel have been supported by non-restricted grants from one or more of these companies and by grants from the Swiss MS Society, The Swiss National Research Foundation, the European Union, Gianni Rubatto, Novartis and Roche Research Foundations. Dr Kappos declared his presentation will include discussion of an experimental nature.

Bernd C Kieseier Grants and contracts: Merck Serono, Bayer Schering, Biogen Idec, Teva, Novartis; honoraria/consultation fees: Merck Serono, Bayer Schering, Biogen Idec, Teva, Novartis; member of company advisory board, board of directors or other similar group: Merck Serono, Biogen Idec, Novartis, Teva.

Catherine Lubetzki Honoraria/consultation fees: Roche; member of company advisory board, board of directors or other similar group: Roche.

Fred Lublin Research funding: Acorda Therapeutics, Biogen Idec, Genentech, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Teva Neuroscience, Genzyme, Sanofi- Aventis; Consulting agreements/advisory boards/DSMB: Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Biogen Idec, BioMS Medical Corp., EMD Serono, Genentech, Novartis, Pfizer, Teva Neuroscience, Genmab, Medicinova, Actelion, Allozyne, Sanofi-Aventis, Acorda, Questcor; speakers’ bureaus/honoraria: EMD Serono, Pfizer, Teva Neuroscience; current financial interests/stock ownership: Cognition Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr Lublin may discuss unapproved agents that are in the MS developmental pipeline without any recommendation on their use.

Giovanni Luigi Mancardi Honoraria/consultation fees, travel expenses for attending meetings, financial support for research: Bayer Schering, Biogen Dompè, Sanofi-Aventis, Merck Serono.

Carlo Pozzilli Grants and contracts: Merck Serono, Bayer-Schering, Biogen, Sanofi-Aventis; honoraria/consultation fees: Merck Serono, Bayer-Schering, Biogen, Sanofi-Aventis; speakers’ bureaus: Merck Serono, Bayer-Schering, Biogen, Sanofi-Aventis.

Per Soelberg Sørensen Honoraria/consultation fees: Bayer Schering, Merck Serono, Biogen Idec, Teva; member of company advisory board, board of directors or other similar group: Biogen Idec, Merck Serono.

Alan J Thompson Honoraria/consultation fees: Eisai London Research Labs (advisory board member); fees and support for travel: Novartis Pharma (PPMS Steering Group member); honoraria and support for travel: Sanofi-Aventis, Serono Symposium (invited lectures); consultancy: DignaBiotech; member of company advisory board, board of directors or other similar group: Patrick Berthoud Trust (trustee), National Hospital Development Foundation (trustee), MSIF International Medical and Scientific Board (chairman); benefit from a relationship with a commercial enterprise: Editor-in-Chief, Multiple Sclerosis (honorarium from Sage Publications); member, editorial board for Lancet Neurology (free subscription from Elsevier); editorial board for Current Medical Literature-MS (free subscription from Remedica).

Mar Tintorè Grants and contracts: Schering Bayer, Biogen-Idec, Merck-Serono, Teva, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis; honoraria/consultation fees: Schering, Bayer, Biogen-Idec, Merck-Serono, Teva, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis; member of company advisory board, board of directors or other similar group: Teva.

Maria Trojano Research grants and contracts: Merck Serono; honoraria/consultation fees: Sanofi-Aventis, Biogen Idec, Bayer Schering.

Patrick Vermersch Grants and contracts: Merck Serono, Biogen Idec, Teva, Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer-Schering Pharma; honoraria/consultation fees: Merck Serono, Biogen Idec, Teva, Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer-Schering Pharma, Novartis; member of company advisory board, board of directors or other similar group: Merck Serono, Biogen Idec, Teva, Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer-Schering Pharma, Novartis.

Jerry Wolinsky Member of advisory boards or data monitoring committees, consulting agreements, speaker honoraria within the last 2 years: Acorda Therapeutics, Actelion, Antisense Therapeutics, Bayer-Schering Pharma, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Facet Biotech, Genentech, Novartis, Peptimmune, Sanofi-Aventis, Teva, Teva Neurosciences, USB, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the University of Texas Medical Branch, the University of South Florida; royalties (since 1993) for out-licensed monoclonal antibodies through The University of Texas Health Science Center to Millipore (Chemicon International) Corporation; research or contractual support: the Clayton Foundation for Research, the NIH [2 U01 NS045719-06 (PI of the subcontract to UTHSCH for image analysis), 2RO1-EB002095-06A1 (Co-I)], Sanofi-Aventis. He is compensated as an associate editor for ACP Medicine, BC Decker.