The Biosimilars Forum's Julie Reed Catalogs Her Long Career in Biosimilars

Julie M. Reed, the new executive director of the Biosimilars Forum, gives a timeline of her career in the biosimilars space and what led her to be one of the founders of the organization.

Transcript

You are one of the founders of the Biosimilars Forum. What was it about biosimilars that got you involved with this line of work in the first place?

So, I'm old and I've had an incredible career, where my first job was as a clinician and then as a hospital administrator and nursing home administrator. Then I moved over into pharma. And I've always been mainly on the generic drug side. And then, as I developed my career in government affairs and policy, I was with Hospira. Hospira was one of the first biosimilar companies in the world. My CEO and the board decided that biosimilars and creating a biosimilars pathway was a major strategic goal. And so with my health care background, my generic drug background, and my working with patients and seeing the cost of health care, it was quite an honor to be to be tapped on the shoulder and say, "Julie, our strategic priority is to develop a biosimilars pathway and we we want you to go do that."

So, I been there from the beginning, not just in biosimilars in the United Staes and lobbying to get the BPCIA [Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act] passed, I've also worked around the world helping to develop the pathways and launched biosimilars in Europe and Japan and everywhere where nobody knew what a biosimilar was; it was a new word. Can you imagine? And we had to tell everybody what it meant and what it was about and how policies had to change.

I was, I hope, a driving force and continue to be a driving force in seeing that happen. So, it's a passion of mine, and it's been an incredibl amount of fun.