Research From the United Kingdom and Ireland Highlights Need for Provider Education on Biosimilars

During the 2018 annual conference of the United Kingdom and Ireland’s Prescribing and Research in Medicines Management, investigators reported on 2 questionnaire-based studies that highlighted the critical importance of provider education in the prescribing of biologics and biosimilars.

Educational Programs for Physicians Help Increase Biosimilar Prescribing

Researchers from the United Kingdom reported on an educational program, known as an Independent Monitoring of Prescribing Analysis Cost Trends (IMPACT) campaign, in which pharmacists gave training to general practitioners on reducing costs through prescribing biosimilar insulin glargine (as well as reducing prescriptions for blood glucose testing strips).¹

The research team sought to evaluate the IMPACT campaign in terms of both physician satisfaction and cost savings produced from changes to prescriptions, and they distributed a questionnaire to the healthcare providers who attended the training. A total of 145 providers completed the survey, and data on biosimilar prescribing were collected from all 59 practices that took part in the campaign.

The majority of respondents said the topics covered in the training were either very useful or useful (80%-89%), and 77% said that they were extremely likely or likely to change their prescribing patterns. After the campaign, the biosimilar comprised 10% of total insulin glargine prescribing, versus 0.1% prior to the initiative, leading the researchers to call the campaign “broadly successful.”

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Education on Pharmacovigilance for Biologics Needs Improvement

A research group from Ireland sought to assess knowledge and experience with pharmacovigilance systems and adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting for biologic medicines among healthcare providers and invited providers to fill out an online questionnaire.²

In total, they collected responses from 88 physicians, 197 general practitioners, 104 nurses, 169 community pharmacists, 87 hospital pharmacists, and 53 pharmacists who worked in other capacities (such as academia, industry, or regulation).

Overall, only 60% of providers said they had adequate knowledge of how to report an ADR, and while 81.5% were familiar with the term “biological medicine,” only 64.8% were familiar with biosimilars. Furthermore, while 87.7% of providers reported that biologics were recorded by brand name in their practices, 48% said that they did not routinely record the batch numbers of biologics given to their patients.

These findings, write the researchers, should aid in the design of educational programs for providers in Ireland and in the design of measures to improve the batch traceability of biologics.

References

1. Lai UH, Patel B, White S, Chapman S. Evaluation of a pharmacist-led diabetes educational outreach program. Presented at the Prescribing and Research in Medicines Management (UK and Ireland) Annual Conference 2018, National Council for Voluntary Organisations, January 26, 2018; London, United Kingdom. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/pds.4439. Accessed August 7, 2018.

2. O’Callaghan J, Griffin BT, Moore U, Morris JM, Bermingham M. Knowledge of adverse drug reaction reporting and the pharmacovigilance of biological medicines: a survey of healthcare professionals in Ireland. Presented at the Prescribing and Research in Medicines Management (UK and Ireland) Annual Conference 2018, National Council for Voluntary Organisations, January 26, 2018; London, United Kingdom. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/pds.4439. Accessed August 7, 2018.