EGA Biosimilars: Prescribers must be encouraged to use biosimilars

Uptake of biosimilars in Europe has increased as a result of member states’ policies, according to Ken Walsh, Global Pricing & Market Access, of Swiss drug major Novartis' (NOVN: VX) generics unit Sandoz, who spoke at the European Generic medicines Association’s (EGA) 12th annual conference on biosimilar medicines in London last week.

Mr Walsh said that in general European prescribers have seen 318 million euros ($437 million) in savings since 2009 through the use of filgrastim. However, in Italy there has been a huge diversity in uptake. For several years Italy had significantly lower biosimilar uptake than EU average, with limited successful payer biosimilar education efforts in Italy. Despite this uptake has improved significantly in 2013 due to ‘biosimilar first in naive patients policies’ and reformed INN inclusion rules. He discussed the state of play in biosimilar regulation across five major EU markets, for example, explaining how the UK’s National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has opened a public consultation on how to review biosimilars in light of resource constraints, whereas French and German regulators tend to agree that biosimilars threaten the sustainability of the pharma industry. These purchasing decisions can destabilize the biosimilars industry, he said, adding that payers need to focus efforts on raising prescriber confidence if a sustainable business model is to exist.

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