As Biosimilars Enter The US Market, Will They Be Used, And Can They Reduce Spending?

This week's blog is by Tomas Croisier and James Forsyth, a partner and director in our life sciences consulting practice, respectively. It was first featured in a blog post on the US Center of Health Solutions site, and explores the impact of biosimilars may have on the treatment of oncology, particularly in the US.1

Last autumn, the US's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first biosimilar to treat multiple types of cancer. While biosimilars have tremendous potential, there also is a good bit of uncertainty around them, particularly in oncology where biologics can have a predominant role in treatment.

February was National Cancer Prevention Month, which gave us a nice opportunity to explore the role biosimilars could play in preventing and treating cancer.2 Many biologics will lose patent protection in the US relatively soon, signalling the start of what some in the industry have dubbed, the "biologics patent cliff."

While 2018 is expected to be a big year for biosimilars in the US, a number of important issues likely need to be resolved. These issues are related and many fall under one broad question: How will biosimilars impact patient treatment and outcomes, particularly in oncology?

We should explore the following topics to better understand the role biosimilars might play in cancer treatment:

Treatment: How will payers and/or providers incorporate biosimilars into treatment pathways? And will biosimilars become a first-line treatment in oncology? Theoretically, physicians and payers might be more willing to use biosimilars in the second or first lines of treatment if they cost less than biologics. In the US however, oncology treatment has traditionally been guided by clinical data first, with cost as a secondary consideration. We don't anticipate price will cause a significant change in treatment patterns as a resultparticularly if the originator product is already established. Innovation: Biosimilars could help push innovation forward in oncology. At least on paper, greater adoption of biosimilars in oncology could free up resources in the health care system. At this point, however, it is unclear whether health systems and health care providers would use any savings to adopt next-generation oncology treatments, or if biosimilars would be used to reduce overall health care spending. The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, which was enacted in 2010, sought to simplify the licensing process for biosimilars. The...

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