Investigators said the English health care system has realized only a sliver of the potential savings potential from biosimilar insulin glargine and that uptake is widely uneven across health care centers.
A study of biosimilar insulin glargine uptake in England found huge missed savings over a 4-year period starting with the reference product’s loss of exclusivity in 2014.
The study, published in the current issue of Diabetes Care, said the savings generated from biosimilar use totaled just $1.1 million and the missed savings amounted to $32.1 million, “indicating that only 3.42% of the potential savings were achieved.”
Investigators also noted a large variation in uptake of insulin glargine biosimilars across Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), which serve to facilitate health care services between patients, physicians, and community groups.
Insulin glargine market shares between these groups ranged from 0% to 53.3% in December 2018, according to the study.
“These results may encourage decision makers in England to promote the use of best-value treatments in primary care and to reevaluate variation across CCGs,” authors of the study wrote.
To conduct the study, investigators collected information on all insulin glargine products prescribed by general practitioners up through December 2018. They then calculated total costs of insulin glargine and uptake rates of biosimilars.
They estimated what it would have cost to have filled all of the prescriptions with the reference product versus the actual cost of biosimilar and reference insulin glargine. The missed savings amount was based on what it would have cost to supply all of the patients with biosimilar forms of the drug.
Investigators described the study as the first to analyze adoption rates for insulin glargine biosimilars in the primary care environment in England and calculate the savings achieved and missed. The reference product that formed the basis for the study was Lantus.
Reference
Agirrezabal I, Sánchez-Iriso E, Mandar K, Cabasés JM. Real-world budget impact of the adoption of insulin glargine biosimilars in primary care in England (2015—2018). Diabetes Care. 2020;43(6):dc192395. doi:10.2337/dc19-2395
AMCP Posters Tackle Interchangeability and Medicaid, Factors Driving Biosimilar Access
April 24th 2024Two posters from the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) annual meeting explore how an interchangeable insulin glargine biosimilar plays into Medicaid budgets and the top factors driving access to biosimilars.
What AmerisourceBergen's Report Reveals About Payers, Biosimilar Pricing Trends
May 28th 2023On this episode of Not So Different, Tasmina Hydery and Brian Biehn from AmerisourceBergen discussed results from a recent survey, that were also presented at Asembia 2023, diving into the payer perspective on biosimilars and current pricing trends across the US biosimilar industry.
Global Biosimilar Market Projected to Reach $1.3 Trillion by 2032
April 11th 2024The global biosimilar market is projected to surge from $25.1 billion in 2022 to approximately $1.3 trillion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.6%, driven mainly by the increasing prevalence of cancer and the cost-effectiveness of biosimilars, as outlined in a report by Towards Healthcare.
Pipelines and Preparation: How the US Can Prepare for More RA Biosimilars
April 16th 2023What can practices do to prepare for all the biosimilars to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) coming down the pipeline? And how can they ensure that the lower-than-anticipated adoption rates for infliximab biosimilars are not repeated? Robert Zutaut, RPh, from McKesson Provider Solutions, tackles all this and more on this episode of Not So Different.
Study: More Biosimilar Competition Is Not Lowering Patient OOP Costs
March 29th 2024Despite more biosimilars entering the market and generating significant savings for payers and health care systems, these savings are not resulting in lower out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for patients, according to a recent study.
Physician and Patient Perspectives After Starting or Switching to Amgevita in IBD
March 23rd 2024A real-world study surveying physicians and patients on adalimumab biosimilar ABP 501 (Amgevita) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) found both patients initiating ABP 501 and those who had switched from the reference product had higher satisfaction levels.