Julie Reed Explains How to Push Forward Bipartisan Biosimilar Legislation

Julie M. Reed, the executive director of the Biosimilars Forum, explains what needs to be done to ensure progress on biosimilar legislation and lower drug prices.

Transcript

Lowering drug prices seems to be the one issue Republicans and Democrats can agree on but efforts to do so, including ones that could increase biosimilar access, are often stalled. What needs to happen to get these policies implemented?

Reed: They need to be prioritized and we need action. When we have opposition against these bills, we hear from policymakers that they’re hearing the market’s working fine. That is, there's depth—several different lenses to look at how the market is doing. The market is working where there's robust competition and access because you're seeing that competition and access lower the prices and you're getting greater cost savings. That's the goal here.

Where the market is not working is if you don't have access or don't have robust coverage of multiple biosimilars; you are not seeing the robust pricing competition and cost savings. So, I think it's very important that when it has bipartisan support. We’re leaving cost savings on the table—and billions of dollars in cost savings. And I think we're not the only ones shouting this from the hilltops. Academics are shouting it, researchers are shouting it, legislators are shouting it, patient groups and providers are shouting, like, “Help us get access to biosimilars because we need to treat our patients and we need to have cost savings!” And so, we need action. We need the action, and I hope we see it.