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Efficacy and safety considerations notwithstanding, US physician are poised to embrace biosimilars as a potentially important way to reduce patient drug costs, according to a new MicroSyndicated survey from InCrowd, which provides real time market research report about physician to companies worldwide. In the survey targeted US biologics prescribers shared their perceptions regarding the onset of biosimilars - lower cost, similar yet not identical versions of already FDA-approved biologic drugs.
Nearly half of US doctors in five major specialty areas surveyed - physicians with significant biologics prescribing patterns - anticipate expanding their prescribing of biosimilars in the next three years, as biosimilar availability increases. Respondents ranked lower costs for patients as the chief way biosimilars could bring value to their patients. Reflecting practical considerations, one in four doctors said that payers and insurance firms ultimately will determine - if not mandate - their level of biosimilar prescribing over the next three years.
“If they are equally effective, and cheaper, it’s tough to see a downside,” said one dermatologist in the survey.
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About 17 percent of respondents felt biosimilars would become the norm or replace biologics in the next three years. Questions concerning pharmacy-level substitutions offered mixed results with only two out of 10 stated they were likely to strictly prohibit pharmacy-level substitution of the originator biologic with biosimilars.
As per the survey, efficacy (89 percent) and safety (81 percent) outranked patient costs (71 percent) among the top important factors in determining whether health care professionals would prescribe biosimilars.
Discounts drove anticipated prescribing patterns. Assuming physicians had the choice between an FDA approved biosimilar and its originator biologic, 83 percent would prescribe a biosimilar if it were 25 percent cheaper - versus just 33 percent if it were 5% cheaper, added the InCrowd survey.
Physicians expect to prescribe biosimilars to a greater proportion of their treatment-naive patients (49 percent) - those who have never tried any drug treatment - than to patients currently or previously treated with the originator biologics (30 percent and 38 percent, respectively).
“As the healthcare industry grapples with the best strategies to lower drug costs, the MicroSyndicated survey shows that while understandably prioritizing efficacy and safety first, physicians are on board with their use. The key will lie in how payers decide to reimburse for biosimilars and their biologic counterparts,” said Diane Hayes, president and co-founder of InCrowd.
