Oncology

Cheryl Larson, president and chief executive officer of the Midwest Business Group on Health, discusses the sticker shock of rising specialty drug costs and how biosimilars are going to be incorporated into efforts to push back against this medical inflation.

Biosimilar pricing is not as simple as a manufacturer's stated discount to the reference product cost, according to Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD, FACP, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in Pennsylvania.

Although the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has put a burden on the economy and the healthcare system in particular, Kashyap Patel, MD, believes that the crisis will likely speed up biosimilar uptake in the United States.

Many additional biosimilars could be on the market by 2025, said presenters at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy eLearning Days virtual meeting.

Posters presented at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) eLearning Days meeting this week from April 20 to 24 reveal important data on biosimilar utilization management, switching, and affordability.

A percentage of oncology pharmacy practitioners report their guidance on biosimilars is influential with clinicians, but many feel their knowledge of biosimilars is deficient in a number of important areas.

In partnership with Samsung Bioepis, Merck has launched the trastuzumab biosimilar Ontruzant, which marks the fifth trastuzumab biosimilar available on the US market.

The Boston Medical Center Health System (BMCHS) of Massachusetts was able to achieve high adoption rates for biosimilars based on experience with a “nonbiosimilar.”

The first 3 months of 2019 saw a trio of biosimilar launches on the US market, ahead of the year-ago quarter's pace, and this came despite the disruption caused by coronavirus disease 2019.

With the launch of Mylan and Biocon’s pegfilgrastim biosimilar, Australia adds another biosimilar to its portfolio of biosimilars in circulation.

The introduction of biosimilars as anticancer therapies was preceded by a period of supportive care biosimilars. Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, describes how he and other clinicians decide which of these agents to use.

Cancer treatments can lead to unpredictable adverse events, so a COVID-19–related measure allowing home infusion jeopardizes patient health and safety, according to the Community Oncology Alliance (COA).

Oncologist/hematologist Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, describes some important considerations for using biosimilars in clinical practice.

Biosimilar companies may do themselves a disservice if they produce education materials that don’t address the needs of clinicians or blatently self-promote, according to Kathy Oubre, chief operations officer at Pontchartrain Cancer Center of Louisiana.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines may help get biosimilars into circulation because the NCCN will recommend them for off-label uses.

MJH Life Sciences™, owner of The Center for Biosimilars®, has acquired the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (PBMI), the nation’s leading provider of research and education that informs, advises, and influences the industry on drug cost management.

China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has accepted Henlius Biotech’s new drug application for its denosumab biosimilar, hlx14.

Following close on the heels of its US approval for Ruxience (rituximab), Pfizer has gained the European Commission nod and aims to launch in coming months.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) effect on the biosimilar industry will be deep and lasting, causing not just approval and launch delays but profound structural changes in how business is done.

Self-insured companies could have saved $407 million to $1.4 billion in 2018 had they switched completely from reference biologics infliximab and filgrastim to biosimilars.

Russian company Biocad gains distribution rights for its rituximab and trastuzumab biosimilars in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Canadian provinces encounter opposition in their move to implement forced switching of patients from reference products to biosimilars.

China is getting the hang of producing biosimilars, and harvest time is on the near horizon, according to a new report.

The FDA has approved a multidose vial of Samsung Bioepis’ trastuzumab biosimilar Ontruzant, which was first approved as a 150-mg single-dose vial in January 2019 and has yet to reach the US market in either form.

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) causes medical systems to bog down from a host of related issues, a UT Health expert said clinical trials likely will be powered down and hospitals will put consideration of newly available agents on hold.

By 2023, patents on nearly 20 oncology biologics will expire, which could lead to more biosimilars in cancer care and therefore reduced costs, according to a review article.

Biosimilars are starting to gain some traction in the marketplace, according to a speaker reviewing the 2020 pipeline at the Specialty Therapies and Biosimilars Congress.

In case you missed it: Jeffery Scott, MD, chief medical officer of Integra Connect, discussed what role biosimilars will play in a value-based system on a recent podcast episode of Not So Different.

Panelists at the 2020 Specialty Therapies and Biosimilars Congress discussed the strategies needed to get biosimilars to market and overcome obstacles by originator product manufacturers.

In May 2019, the FDA released its final guidance on biosimilars. With more and more oncology biosimilars entering the market, healthcare providers should be able to help their patients reduce their out-of-pockets costs while providing the highest-quality care available, which will lead to savings over time, according to a recent column in Evidence-Based Oncology™, a sister publication to The American Journal of Managed Care®.