Pharmacy Daily | Biosimilar savings for British Columbia

UP TO 20,400 patients receiving branded biologic drugs in the Canadian province of British Columbia will be switched to biosimilars under a new policy announced on Mon 27 May.

The move is expected to deliver savings of close to CAD$96 million dollars to the province's medication subsidy scheme, PharmCare, over the first three years.

Announcing the decision, British Columbia Minister of Health, Adrian Dix, said international evidence had proven biosimilars "work just as safely and effectively as higher priced biologics".

Dix noted that Canada had relatively low use of biosimilars with about 8% of patients using biologics being prescribed a biosimilar over a branded biologic, compared to other jurisdictions, where substitution is at 95%.

In Australia, the 2018 University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Pharmacy Barometer found just one-in-three pharmacists were confident about their ability to provide information about biosimilars to patients, down from 37%, while just 16% of pharmacists reported being aware of the Department of Health's Biosimilar Awareness Initiative.

The Barometer also found Australian pharmacists' confidence levels around biosimilar substitution had fallen from 29% in 2017 to 26% a year later.

Barometer expert panel member and CEO of Montrose Pharma, Adjunct Professor John Montgomery, noted the Federal Government has earmarked $330.8 million in savings through biosimilar substitution.

However, he warned the Government was unlikely to see those savings in the short-term based on pharmacists' lack of confidence around biosimilars.

"At the end of the day you cannot rely on Government to carry the message," he said.

"The ultimate people who are responsible - and if you look back to the early days of generics, who did the heavy lifting? It wasn't the Government, it was the manufacturers... and in order to really ramp it up that needs to be done [with biosimilars]."