Betting Big on Biosimilars: How Evolving Market Dynamics Will Impact Patient Access
While the U.S. has been frustratingly slow to embrace biosimilars, the next few years are poised to see a veritable boom in new market entrants. Only six biosimilars were available at the end of 2018. There are now around 40 biosimilars approved in the U.S. across multiple indications. Plus, enrollment in the FDA’s Biosimilar Development Program has increased nearly 60% since October 2015, with more than 90 proposed biosimilar products in the program.
As longstanding tensions around drug pricing and patient accessibility reach an inflection point, this long-awaited surge in activity couldn’t have come too soon. Biosimilars play a major role in solving some of the woes of the U.S. healthcare ecosystem. Healthy competition among biosimilars and reference products could lead to a wider variety of therapies and, ultimately, lower costs of care.
As we prepare for an onslaught of biosimilars, it’s critical that all healthcare stakeholders—especially manufacturers—understand how drastically the market has evolved since the first U.S. biosimilar product was launched in 2015. While seven years may not seem like a particularly lengthy time frame, several recent developments are changing the way that payers and PBMs approach biosimilars—and the way that manufacturers should approach the market.
Read the full article over on Drug Channels. And to get firsthand insights into how payers are perceiving the evolution of the biosimilars market, MMIT is hosting a moderated discussion with payers on how the changing market might impact their management strategies in immunology. Sign up for the webcast here.
