Proposed new US legislation to improve biosimilars adoption

Biosimilar competition has the potential to provide greater access to important treatments for America’s patients and cost savings for the nation’s health care system of as much as $130 billion by 2025, notes the Biosimilars Council, a division of the USA’s Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM).

Biosimilars offer average cost reductions of 30% compared to the brands, but their adoption is lagging, due at least in part to misaligned provider reimbursement incentives. Fortunately, there are bipartisan solutions that would help to address this challenge.

Representatives Kurt Schrader (Democrat, Oregon) and Adam Kinzinger (Republican, Illinois) have introduced the BIOSIM Act to encourage greater use of these novel therapies for life-threatening conditions such as cancer and chronic kidney disease. If signed into law, this bill will accelerate patient access to new lower-cost biosimilar treatments by providing a temporary payment increase to clinicians that prescribe them.