Dr Brandon Shank: Biosimilar Naming and Suffixes

A study evaluating the real-world impact of treating patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with an adalimumab biosimilar found that providing patient questionnaires early can be useful for identifying those at a higher risk of treatment discontinuation.

On this episode of Not So Different, Fran Gregory, PharmD, MBA, vice president of emerging therapies at Cardinal Health, analyzes the adalimumab market so far in the United States and provides insight into how the market needs to adapt to accept these products and ensure lower drug costs for patients.

Perhaps the most significant development in the pharmaceutical industry in decades, crops of biosimilars are being approved and are ready for distribution. What lies next, in terms of legislation and the impact on pharmacists, remains to be seen.

On this episode of Not So Different, Julie Reed, executive director of the Biosimilars Forum, expanded on ways to make biosimilar development faster and cheaper without compromising on safety and efficacy and how these practices can ensure a sustainable market for the future.

Switching from reference to biosimilar adalimumab was found to be safe and effective, researchers cautioned that female patients may be at higher risk of discontinuation compared with their male counterparts.

Single switching between approved biologics and biosimilars of tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFis) were found to be safe and effective for rheumatoid arthritis.