California Governor rejects Biosimilars Bill

The Governor of the US state of California, Jerry Brown, on Saturday (October 11) vetoed proposed legislation on the dispensing of biosimilar drugs, copy versions of high-priced biological medicines, to patients in the state.

Senate Bill 598, authored by Senator Jerry Hill (Democrat, San Mateo), would have allowed pharmacists to substitute a new class of biologic medicines, or “biosimilars,” for a brand biologic when the biosimilar is deemed interchangeable by the Food and Drug Administration and require that a patient’s physician is notified which biologic medicine was dispensed (The Pharma Letter August 5).

While the majority of biologic medicines are dispensed and administered by physicians, a small percentage of patients receive them through pharmacies. In a veto message on Saturday, Gov Brown said the bill was premature because federal regulators had not even determined the standards governing the cheaper drugs.