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Survey: Physicians expect to prescribe more biosimilars in the next 3 years
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InCrowd, a company that provides real-time market analysis, released the results of a survey of dermatologists, endocrinologists, gastroenterologists, oncologists and rheumatologists that showed half of respondents expect to prescribe biosimilar medications more often in the next 3 years.
The survey results were taken from a 6-minute microsurvey of 150 specialists, with 30 physicians from each specialty. Respondents were physicians with between 3 years and 39 years in practice, were at least somewhat familiar with biosimilars and had personally prescribed biologic medications.
According information from InCrowd, about 17% of respondents said they believed biosimilars will become regularly prescribed within the next 3 years, and one in four physicians anticipated payers will help determine or mandate prescribing practices during that time.
More physicians (eight of 10) were motivated to prescribe biosimilars at a 25% savings, while three of 10 respondents were motivated to prescribe biosimilars in the presence of a 5% discount overall. However, about half of endocrinologists and oncologists reported an interest in prescribing biosimilars at a 5% cost reduction. About half of respondents said they expected to prescribe a biosimilar to biologic treatment-naïve patients.
Pharmacy-level substitutions were reported to be unacceptable by two of 10 physicians, while three of 10 said they would never prohibit a substitution overall. However, endocrinologists and oncologists were more likely to support pharmacy substitutions, and dermatologists were most likely to require the prescription to be dispensed as written.
Six of 10 of the responding physicians claimed strong knowledge about biosimilars, with endocrinologists and rheumatologists reporting the greatest level of knowledge.
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