Practice

At the annual meeting of the Association for Accessible Medicines (Access 2023), Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban explained his dedication to and the inner workings of his online pharmacy that provides generic drugs to patients for significantly lower prices than traditional pharmacies.

Sarfaraz K. Niazi, PhD, goes over some misconceptions surrounding biosimilar adoption as well as some national efforts to make biosimilar uptake easier and biosimilar development more economically efficient.

IQVIA’s Biosimilars in the United States 2023-2027 report found that while the US biologics market has grown 12.5% annually over the last 5 years, spending on biosimilars is growing and is expected to reach $129 billion by 2027.

Vizient’s Pharmacy Market Outlook report examined the impact that factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the US market introduction of adalimumab biosimilars, will have on drug prices and the utilization of lower-cost biologics.

A real-world study assessing the aftermath of Denmark implementing a nationwide mandatory switch from one infliximab to another found strong treatment retention rates, demonstrating the safety and tolerability of biosimilar-to-biosimilar switching.

Amgen’s Amjevita (adalimumab-atto) has officially entered the US market, making it the first of potentially 10 biosimilars referencing Humira to launch in 2023.

Michael Chiang, MD, director of the National Eye Institute, discusses how his team is working to instill greater confidence in ophthalmology biosimilars among wary ophthalmologists.

A case study outlined a pediatric case of scalp and nail psoriasis, which was successfully treated with an adalimumab biosimilar and monitored with in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy.

IQVIA’s eighth edition of its Impact of Biosimilar Competition in Europe report demonstrated successful uptake in many countries throughout the region. However, not every country has great adoption rates and companies may have a harder time choosing which molecules to invest in for biosimilar development.

A study assessing the use of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha inhibitor biosimilars in France found that the biosimilar penetration rate was higher for infliximab compared to etanercept and adalimumab. The authors said they aimed to understand the key drivers for biosimilar use to improve biosimilar uptake in France.

Despite recent steps taken by the FDA to streamline approvals and increase availability for biosimilars, biosimilar adoption has been slow and primarily driven by payers in the United States, signaling that more needs to be done to encourage adoption, according to experts at a virtual workshop hosted by the FDA and the University of Maryland.

Ryan Haumschild, PharmD, MS, MBA, director of pharmacy services at Emory Healthcare and Winship Cancer Institute, tackles how stakeholders can collaborate and utilize market data to effectively boost biosimilar uptake.

Prime Therapeutics has officially acquired Magellan Rx Management, a popular pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) in the specialty pharmacy space. The acquisition was announced in May 2022 and includes the acquisition of Magellan Rx’s specialty, PBM, and government pharmaceutical and Medicaid business segments.

The Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs (ACMA) is launching a new program for health care professionals to become Board Certified Biologics and Biosimilars Specialists.

Now that the world population has reached 8 billion, Ivo Abraham, PhD, chief scientist of Matrix45 and a professor at the University of Arizona, took a look at how high-income countries can increase accessibility to livesaving medicines to the 7 billion people who have limited access to biosimilars.

Regence found that implementing strategies to increase its biosimilar adoption rate reduced spending on specialty drugs by $37 million annually. The organization is the latest example of how biosimilar use has contributed to significant savings.

Technology utilizing electronic medical records pathways can be useful for practices struggling to manage multiple biosimilars for the same reference product, according to Ryan Haumschild, PharmD, MS, MBA, from Emory Healthcare and Winship Cancer Institute.

A review explored the 3 main administration options for pegfilgrastim biosimilars, finding that providers should consider the ease and frequency to which patients will need to travel to a clinic for administration as well as their preferences when choosing a mode of administration.

Abstracts presented at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Nexus meeting explored the adoption of infliximab biosimilars, utilization patterns of bevacizumab biosimilars in ophthalmology and oncology settings, and the budget impact of transferring patients to a natalizumab biosimilar from the originator.

Biosimilar and generic drugs accumulated $373 billion in savings in 2021, $7 billion of which can be attributed to biosimilars alone, according to a report from the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM).

Ryan Haumschild, PharmD, MS, MBA, from Emory Healthcare and Winship Cancer Institute, offers advice to health systems on how they can incorporate some of Emory Healthcare's strategies to promote biosimilar uptake.

A report from Cardinal Health tells that rheumatologists are more familiar and confident in biosimilars compared with 2020, showing that education efforts are effective and that rheumatologists are more willing to prescribe biosimilars to their patients.

Ryan Haumschild, PharmD, MS, MBA, from Emory Healthcare and Winship Cancer Institute, explains how stakeholders may view the economic value of biosimilars differently based on their goals and his predictions for how biosimilar utilization will develop in the future.

Realigning definitions and policies across regulatory agencies and developing a better understanding of how different stakeholders approach biosimilars could help get more patients and providers on board with using biosimilars, according to panelists at the DIA Biosimilars Conference.

Panelists at the DIA Biosimilars Conference discussed how biosimilars can help address health care disparities and why patient notification for switching to biosimilars must be handled with caution.

The third installment of this 4-part series dives into how providers, administrators, nurses, and pharmacists can prepare for adalimumab biosimilars and what role they can play in patient acceptance and use of biosimilars.

As more biosimilars are granted interchangeability status, 2 representatives from Samsung Bioepis stop misinformation in its tracks by clarifying that the designation will primarily impact pharmacy dispensing instead of prescription habits.

Ivo Abraham, PhD, chief scientist of Matrix45 and a professor at the University of Arizona, describes the pharmacoeconomics of biosimilars and the savings potential for practices and payers if they prioritize greater biosimilar adoption.

Vizient’s 2022 Biosimilar Survey found that health care organizations consider interchangeable designations to be very important in prescription decision-making, signaling the interchangeability could play a big role in the adoption of adalimumab biosimilars.

Researchers found that an infliximab biosimilar was as safe and effective as the reference product (Remicade) in pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease. However, more studies on adalimumab biosimilars in pediatric patients are needed.