Dr Chelsee Jensen on Biosimilar Uptake, Expansion

It's important for pharmacists to have advanced conversations so they are prepared for the launch of new and expanded biosimilars, said Chelsee Jensen, PharmD, senior pharmacy specialist at Mayo Clinic during the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Nexus 2022 fall meeting.

Transcript

How can stakeholders promote a competitive landscape that continues to encourage biosimilar uptake within their organizations?

I think from a health system perspective, it's really going to be important to continue to have conversations with payers and also to share what kind of savings have been passed through to payers through adoption of biosimilars. I think that will really help smooth conversations to continue biosimilar utilization and promote biosimilar use across the US.

What considerations should payers, providers, and pharmacists keep in mind as biosimilars expand into new therapeutic areas?

I really think this is going to come down to education. Especially as we expand into new therapeutic areas, it's important for pharmacists, nurses, providers to be aware of, again, what indications. If they're skinny label indications that biosimilars do not carry, to be aware of that, as well as to understand if the plan is going to cover those off-label indications or not. And again, if there are formulation differences that are occurring, just to have those discussions with patients far in advance so they are prepared for changes and prepared to adopt a biosimilar without having any risk for the nocebo effect.

As the industry awaits for adalimumab biosimilars to enter the market next year, what can health systems do now to ensure these products stand the best chance against the originator?

At our AMCP session, "The Evolving US Biosimilars Landscape," I think one of the important points of emphasis is, again, patient education, provider education, nursing education. As the as we transition to this, there's going to be huge impact obviously on the pharmacy benefit. I think there is going to be less operational hurdles with real-time benefit checks. However, again, as we prepare for formulation changes or delivery device changes, it's important to educate patients so they're well-informed. At a pharmacy level, again, to be prepped for those inventory changes if you need to purchase additional refrigerators or maybe downsize if possible, just to have advanced conversation so you're well prepared for those to launch.