Biosimilars Reshape the Market

Janson Silvers  0:03  
Welcome to Healthcare Policy pop. I'm Janson Silvers. it's Thursday, July 27 2023. Today's pop topics new research shows the need for increased use of patient centered outcomes when determining the value of new drugs. And we're halfway through the year and the top selling drug in the world has several new biosimilars find out how they're shaping the market. Let's begin with that new research on patient centered outcomes that is out this week. Avalere, a healthcare business consulting firm released its study focused on ICER assessments and whether or not they take into account the patient experience when creating their reports which are used by payers to determine coverage. It found ICERs use of this patient data varied across reports and didn't account for differences in patient experiences across disease states. And these findings, quote, highlight opportunities to make value assessment more patient centered. The use of patient experiences in drug value assessments and development is something patients rising now has been working toward for a while now. At the beginning of July, patient rising now sent comments to the FDA and say, quote, patient experience provides insights to all involve parties in drug development, not the least of which being the patient's themselves. In the case of a treatment, the biggest indicator of efficacy is whether progression of disease has stagnated or reversed altogether. This information is invaluable to all stakeholders. You can find those comments and the white paper from Avalere in the shownotes.

Janson Silvers  1:39  
July has almost passed in several humera biosimilars have been approved for market all with the hope of lowering costs for patients. Wayne Weingarten as Senior Fellow with the Pacific Research Institute, says the first half of this year has been exciting.

Wayne Winegarden  1:53  
So I think that is incredibly helpful. There are still barriers, we still haven't crossed that finish line. But I think there's a chance that we can a good uptake of biosimilars and be change how drugs are priced, both of which will be invaluable.

Janson Silvers  2:08  
The next big step is figuring out how to overcome those barriers.

Wayne Winegarden  2:12  
And he's really important to recognize the problem set high drug prices, that's a misnomer. The problem is a cost shift, that is putting the excessive costs on to patients. And patients have an affordability problem, even though systemically drug prices have been affordable. So that's why getting the low list price versions out there are so important is because that's how we can get the out of pocket savings to the consumer. And that's how we address the problem.

Janson Silvers  2:39  
And Weingarten says whether biosimilars introduced to the market fixed pricing issues or not one way or another, it will tell us a lot about PBMs. First, if this all does work,

Wayne Winegarden  2:51  
you all of a sudden have seen a model, both full manufacturer perspective, from the PBM spectrum, from the insurer perspective, you will see something that has worked. Now here we see something that's worked when this was the best selling drug in the world. So this is a great showcase to say, look, we don't need this opaque, complicated system to price drugs. In fact, it's problematic. So it's a fantastic showcase. And if it doesn't, if it fails, well now we're talking about the need for PBM reforming that becomes, I think a much more important topic because obviously the obstacles that are in the system are too great to be overcome without some type of legislative reform. So either way, I think there could be a pathway forward to make things better. Obviously, success is better than failure.

Janson Silvers  3:48  
Finally, today, this seems like a weekly story. But once again, drug shortages are worsening three doses of Eli Lilly's popular diabetes medication Manjaro already were on the shortage list. And now the FDA has added a fourth, showing that drug shortages are happening across the spectrum of medicine. We will continue to follow this story and a link to the FDA shortage list is in the shownotes. That's all for today and a heads up just like Congressman Hill staff. We are going to be taking a recess for the month of August, but we will be right back here in your podcast feed in September. Until then, this is healthcare policy pop a resource of patient rising now. I'm Janssen Silvers, have a great day.