Savings from biosimilars reached an all-time high in 2021

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A recent report has highlighted how despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the volume of biosimilar prescribing has generated a record high in savings from biosimilar competition.

Health Budget 3

The report, which was carried out by data analysis firm IQVIA at the request of the European Commission, found that list price savings (excluding confidential rebates and discounts) accounted for €5.7 billion in savings versus the pre-biosimilar cost of the originator in 2020, see Figure 1.

Figure 1: List price savings from biosimilar competition

GW 4750G 3 Fig 1 V22C11AU

Source: IQVIA [1].

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increasing government debt, which could lead to a focus on easily accessible savings rather than on long-term savings. Due to this, IQVIA believes that ‘ensuring biosimilar competition takes place in a timely manner could be at risk, taking second place to driving uptake. However, a short-term perspective will result in an unsustainable market in a time where system resilience is increasingly important’.

The report concludes that, although savings are naturally higher in countries that have a high use of biologicals, even countries with low usage have seen reductions of 1.5%‒2.5% on their total drug spend.

Conflict of interest
The authors of the report [1] did not provide any conflict-of-interest statement.

Editor’s comment
Readers interested to learn more about savings from biosimilar competition are invited to visit www.gabi-journal.net to view the following manuscript published in GaBI Journal:

Saving money in the European healthcare systems with biosimilars

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Readers interested in contributing a research or perspective paper to GaBI Journal – an independent, peer reviewed academic journal – please send us your submission here.

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How biosimilar competition in Europe is changing

Developing access to biologicals remains challenging

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on biologicals

Impact of biosimilar competition in Europe in 2021

Reference
1. Troein P, Newton M, Scott K, et al. The impact of biosimilar competition in Europe: December 2021. IQVIA.

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