Biosimilars Market Is Expected to Grow, But Impact on Payers, Costs Remains Uncertain

The FDA is expected to approve several biosimilar medications in the next few years, potentially leading to billions of dollars in savings for payers and patients, according to a recent report from Cardinal Health. However, Bruce Feinberg, D.O., Cardinal Health’s chief medical officer, tells AIS Health that the promise of biosimilars to decrease medication and overall health care costs remains uncertain. He adds that the price differential between biologic drugs and their biosimilars has not reached anywhere near the levels seen between small-molecule medications and their generics.

Feinberg says that “in most of the biosimilars to date, none of the manufacturers have been quite willing to initiate that race to the bottom on price,” in large part due the high costs of producing biosimilars and funding research and development of them. Whereas the introduction of a generic can reduce prices by 90%, Feinberg says “we’re not seeing those kinds of changes [with biosimilars],” claiming the range is usually from 10% to 30% with an average of 15%.

© 2024 MMIT
Tim Casey

Tim Casey

Tim has worked as a reporter and editor for more than 20 years. Before joining AIS Health in December 2021, he was a business reporter covering the commercial real estate industry’s capital markets for four years. He previously covered health care business issues for two medical publishing companies and high school, college and professional sports for the Sacramento Bee newspaper. Tim has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University.

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