Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) also recommended that Inflectra is suitable for substitution at the pharmacy level. This decision follows the PBAC’s announcement that it would now recommend ‘a’ flagging biosimilars where ‘data are supportive’ [1]. The PBAC said its recommendation for ‘a’ flagging Inflectra was made ‘after considering evidence that showed that it was as safe and effective as the reference biological medicine’.

GBMA CEO Belinda Wood said that ‘biosimilars reduce the cost of medicines to the health system in two ways: firstly, through an instant 16% price reduction upon PBS listing, and then over time as a result of competition and price disclosure’. The GBMA added that although ‘the inclusion of the first monoclonal antibody biosimilar on the PBS will deliver immediate savings’ ‘the full potential of this and other biosimilar medicines relies on market uptake drivers aimed at prescribers, pharmacists and patients’.

Ms Wood expects the increased availability and use of biosimilars to ‘deliver significant savings to the PBS’. This is based on the fact that currently in Australia brand-name biologicals account for AU$2.3 billion, or around 25% of annual PBS expenditure.

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Reference
1.  GaBI Online - Generics and Biosimilars Initiative. Australia’s PBAC recommends substitution of biosimilars [www.gabionline.net]. Mol, Belgium: Pro Pharma Communications International; [cited 2016 Jan 8]. Available from: www.gabionline.net/Biosimilars/General/Australia-s-PBAC-recommends-substitution-of-biosimilars

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