Biosimilars makers in Canada to launch patient support programme

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Biosimilars makers in Canada to launch patient support programme

Biosimilars/General | Posted 11/01/2019 0 Post your comment

Biosimilars Canada, an association representing Canada’s biosimilar makers, announced on 22 November 2018 that it had chosen pharmaceutical service provider Innomar Strategies to be the preferred provider for the association’s Patient Support Program (PSP) platform.

The Biosimilars Canada PSP platform will provide patient support services for Biosimilars Canada members that can be customized to meet the individual needs of the therapy, the biosimilar sponsor and payers.

According to Jim Keon, President of Biosimilars Canada, the country ‘is recognized internationally as having high barriers to market entry for sponsors of biosimilars, in part because many products administered in hospitals in other jurisdictions are administered in private clinics in Canada and require extensive services to support the patient in their journey’. This is where the association hopes that its PSP platform can ‘be an important solution in ensuring biosimilar sponsors can provide high quality patient support services required by payers, physicians and patients while providing value to the Canadian healthcare system’.

To date, Health Canada has approved 10 biosimilars [1]. Although uptake has been slow so far, Biosimilars Canada expects the use of biosimilars to increase more rapidly in 2019 and beyond ‘as new biosimilars are launched and benefit designs and coverage policies continue to evolve to optimize the use of biosimilar treatments’.

Biosimilars in Canada help ‘to enhance competition, improve access to biologic medicines, and contribute to the financial sustainability of healthcare systems’, according to Michel Robidoux, Chair of Biosimilars Canada and President/General Manager of Sandoz Canada.

‘As more biosimilars come into the market, patients will need services built around these products to support them with their illness. By utilizing a centralized Patient Support Program model, healthcare providers, manufacturers and patients will experience efficiencies, while still having a best-in-class experience’, said Kevin West, Vice President of Innomar Strategies.

Biosimilars Canada is planning to launch its patient support platform in 2019.

Reference
1. GaBI Online - Generics and Biosimilars Initiative. Biosimilars approved in Canada [www.gabionline.net]. Mol, Belgium: Pro Pharma Communications International; [cited 2019 Jan 11]. Available from: www.gabionline.net/Biosimilars/General/Biosimilars-approved-in-Canada

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Source: Biosimilars Canada