🏥 Expensive biologics treatments are often better than cheaper medicines, but access needs to be improved.
💊 Biosimilars can deliver the same efficacy at a lower price, helping to slow the rising costs of healthcare.
💰 Biosimilars also have second-order impacts, such as reducing frontline salary bills and operational costs.
🏥 Ongoing biologic innovations and biosimilar competition can spread the benefits of large-scale manufacture to lower-income nations.
🧬 Technical advances, such as QTL technology, can lower biosimilar prices and improve access to affordable medicine.
🔬 To overcome manufacturing obstacles and challenge vested interests, a recalibration of the procurement system may be needed.
Introduction:
Healthcare costs are rising, and expensive biologic treatments are a major contributing factor. However, biosimilars, which are generic equivalents of biologics, offer the same efficacy at a lower price. Improving access to biosimilars can help slow the rising costs of healthcare.
- Health spending is growing in many countries, but most of the data contradicts the assumption that overpriced medicines are the main driver of rising healthcare costs.
- Biosimilars offer a way to lower the price of biologic medicines while maintaining efficacy.
- Biosimilars have the potential to reduce frontline salary bills and operational costs by reducing hospital visits and demand for sustained care.
- Biosimilars also have the potential to spread the benefits of biologic innovation to lower-income nations that cannot afford the original treatments.
- New technology, such as Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) technology, can optimize the manufacture of biosimilars to deliver consistent quality and lower costs.
- A more innovative and competition-friendly approach to procurement is needed to ensure that the commercial potential of biosimilars translates into lower prices for the wider public.
Conclusion:
Biosimilars have the potential to help reduce spiraling healthcare costs by offering the same efficacy as biologic medicines at a lower price. They can also lead to indirect savings by reducing frontline salary bills and operational costs. Additionally, biosimilars can spread the benefits of biologic innovation to lower-income nations. New technology, such as QTL technology, can further optimize the manufacture of biosimilars. However, a more innovative and competition-friendly approach to procurement is necessary to fully realize the benefits of biosimilars.
