Insights From Cencora's Dr Lakesha Farmer: Innovative Biosimilar Adoption Strategies

Lakesha Farmer, PharmD, MBA, senior director, strategic accounts, ION Oncology Practice Network at Cencora, explains new strategies being used to incentivize biosimilar adoption and market competition in a world where reimbursement and rebate policies cater more towards innovator products.

Transcript

Can you discuss any innovative pricing and reimbursement models that have been implemented to incentivize biosimilar adoption and market competitiveness?

Sure, since the introduction to the market, we've seen some very unique pricing incidences strategies created to incentivize adoption of biosimilar agents. So, most recently, we've seen manufacturers take a nonbranded and branded approach to the launch of their biosimilars, which offers a low wholesale acquisition costs are WAC and the high WAC option. This pricing approach is currently being seen with insulin biosimilars and adalimumab biosimilars.

For example, the adaIimumab biosimilars Cyltezo was initially launched as a branded, high WAC product that offer about 5% discount to the originator (Humira). The makers of Cyltezo saw that the uptake of the medication was pretty slow, and that not all PBMs [pharmacy benefit managers] and insurers were receptive to adding the slightly discounted medication to their formularies. So, about 3 months after their launch, the manufacturer decided to launch an unbranded, low WAC version of the medication, which was surprisingly about 81% less than the originator product's price. So, by taking this low WAC/high WAC approach to pricing, this caters to all PBMs and issuer plans based upon their preference and increases coverage and access to biosimilar for patients.
The only possible downside to this pricing strategy that I can possibly foresee is that the heavily discounted low WAC options could possibly impact a manufacturer's ability to offer co-pay assistance programs and other patient access resources.

The second unique pricing strategy that incentivizes patients access to biosimilars is the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Program. This program aims to lower patient out-of-pocket costs by offering your Yusimry, an adalimumab biosimilar, to patients for a low cost of $569 [per month]. According to Drugs.com, the average cash price for Humira is about $7,300. As you can see, by offering this biosimilar at a cash price of $569 to uninsured patients, as well as a possible option for commercially insured patients with high deductibles, co-pays, and/or co-insurances can definitely be a game changer.

Now moving on to address the unique reimbursement incentive. Currently, the most notable incentive is the add-on payment for physician administered biosimilars that was introduced under the Inflation Reduction Act. Under this provision biosimilar reimbursement is set at ASP [average sales price] plus 8% of the reference product's ASP, which is higher than the reference product's reimbursement, which is set at ASP plus 6%. This higher reimbursement rate, provided through Medicare, provides community based providers with a greater incentive to use biosimilars for their patients.