Pharmacy Daily | Biosimilar education campaign boost

FEDERAL Government funding to extend the Generic and Biosmilar Medicines Association's (GBMA's) biosimilar education program until at least Jun 2022, will be a boost for pharmacists, patients and prescribers, the organisation believes.

GBMA CEO, Marnie Peterson, said the extension of the Government grant highlighted the important role the awareness campaign has played in boosting confidence in the use of biosimilar brands of biological medicines that are listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Peterson noted that since 2016, when GBMA launched its initial benchmark market research report, the level of community pharmacists reporting that they have experience with biosimilar medicines has increased by 77%, with 84% now reporting that they have confidence in counselling a patient on a biosimilar medicine.

The recently released University of Technology Sydney 2020 Pharmacy Barometer Report, noted that "the speed of uptake and adoption of biosimilars in Australia has been slower than originally expected".

The Barometer found that 36% of community pharmacists said they were confident when it came to substituting a biosimilar, up from 34% in 2019, while 57% rated their confidence level as "neutral".

However, the report noted a significant decline in those saying they were not confident about biosimilar substitution in 2020 (7% down from 15% in 2019).

Commenting on the finding, UTS Adjunct Professor and former Generic Medicines Industry Association Chair, John Montgomery, said confidence levels around biosimilar substitution were mirroring the early days of generics.

"A larger increase in confidence would have been expected given the education programs in place," he said.

"It took time to build confidence in the early days of generics and biosimilars seem to be on a similar trajectory."

Meanwhile, Arrotex Group General Manager - Marketing, Lisa Golden, reported it has taken a month for the company's PBS-listed adalimumab biosimilars, Hadlima and Amgevita, to surpass the etanercept biosimilar switch rate.

Golden said the savings generated by switching to biosimilars "allows the Federal Government to reinvest savings to list new medicines and health technologies on the PBS".