Biosimilars Are Getting a Foothold and Becoming Preferred, Says Dr James Chambers

Early in a biosimilar’s life cycle, it can be challenging to gain a foothold, but over time biosimilars are gaining traction and becoming preferred products, said James D. Chambers, PhD, professor, Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Tufts Medical Center.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Transcript

Considering safety and efficacy is the same, but the cost is cheaper, why wouldn't a payer prefer a biosimilar over the originator product on formulary?

I think, historically, there's been some reticence about biosimilars and, are they truly equivalent? We talked about interchangeability and so on. I don't think that is the same concern now as it once was. I don't think that really is a factor. I think that what you maybe getting towards here are some of the rebate rules and some of the negotiations, and what's the net price and the rebate? Who gets the benefit from the magnitude of the rebate? And so on. And the incentive to put a higher list price so that you can offer larger discount and so on, obfuscates things, confuses things, and I think that that could be a challenge.

My research certainly suggests, though, that even given that the biosimilars have increasingly become preferred amongst payers. While that may be a hurdle at the beginning and be very obstructive at the beginning of a drug's life cycle, over time, it does seem as if the biosimilars are gaining traction and getting the foothold in the market and often becoming the preferred product in some cases.

While in some ways you could argue that the system is against the new biosimilar entry, over time, it is gaining traction, it is getting a foothold. It is hard to understand those complicated rules, exactly where the money goes, and the system is opaque, and it's hard to figure out. But from a good news perspective, our data does show that over time, biosimilars are becoming more successful and gaining market share, so that is a good thing.