Therapies that can save lives and help bring down drug costs.

The field of biologics – therapies derived from living organisms – is an exciting area of medicine that is making significant breakthroughs in human health. Given their complex and costly development, combined with minimal competition, biologics are often extremely expensive, which is putting enormous strain on patients and the system overall. Treating one patient can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Because of this, biologic drugs account for a disproportionate and increasing share of pharmaceutical spending. 

Biosimilar drugs are important because they provide additional treatment options and create greater competition in the marketplace, which is essential to achieving both access and affordability. Biosimilars are near-identical alternatives and have no clinically meaningful differences from existing FDA-approved biologic drugs.

Biosimilars are estimated to ultimately be up to 35% less expensive* than branded biologics and are critical to solving the affordability challenge while still harnessing the potential of science. Too often, approval and adoption of biosimilars is challenged by several legal and regulatory barriers that favor drug manufacturers of branded biologics, including the use of anticompetitive tactics and lack of regulatory clarity. Biosimilars can fundamentally change the pharmaceutical market by lowering drug costs through more competition, but we must break down these barriers to patient access. 

• Policymakers should embrace the biosimilar market and work to speed approval and market entry of these life-saving drugs to boost competition, lower costs, and increase access to medications.

*https://www.verywellhealth.com/biosimilar-lower-drug-cost-5198235