Biosimilar boom may help equalize care standards previously ‘inaccessible due to cost’
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DESTIN, Fla. — There are myriad advantages to an increased availability of lower-cost biosimilar therapies in rheumatology, according to a speaker at the 2023 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology meeting.
“The potential risk to the individual of switching to a lower-cost biosimilar should be outweighed by the potential benefit to society of expanding access to care for all,” Jonathan Kay, MD, of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, told attendees at the hybrid meeting. “It is essentially the enlightenment concept of The Social Contract.”
The benefits of increased availability of biosimilars go beyond serving society at large; the opportunity to access care standards that may have previously been out of reach are one of the potential benefits, Kay said.
“Biosimilars should be more readily available to patients for whom the bio-originator may have been inaccessible due to cost,” Kay said. “Preferred formulary status could lessen the burden of obtaining prior authorization.”
In addition to expanding access, more biosimilars may have a role to play in introducing market competition and bringing prices down, especially in cases where multiple biosimilars exist for a single reference product.
“Lower-priced biosimilars have introduced market competition and have provoked discounts and rebates for bio-originators,” Kay said. “Multiple biosimilars for the same reference product, infliximab, have driven the price down.”
Although there may be economic incentives to increase the availability and adoption of biosimilars, Kay offered some examples of what he tells his patients when discussing biosimilars and their utility in care.
“I tell them FDA-approved biosimilars have been compared extensively to their reference products in many ways and have been shown to have equivalent efficacy and comparable safety, and that an FDA-approved biosimilar is like another batch of its reference product,” Kay said. Additionally, Kay explains to patients that if more people adopt biosimilars, it becomes more possible for patients to receive care using those same lower-cost therapies.
“Biosimilars are most important in that they have introduced a competitive marketplace for biologic medications, making medications more affordable for patients and society,” Kay said. “The patient must share in the savings; the savings should not just be for PBMs and insurance companies.”
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Kay J. Biosimilars: How similar are they? Presented at The Congress of Clinical Rheumatology East; May. 4-7, 2023; Destin, Florida (hybrid meeting).
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