The B.C. government said Friday that the money freed up through its biosimilar switching plan allowed the province to expand public coverage of other drugs and devices
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix announces the PharmaCare program expansion of biosimilars and boosting existing coverage for patients during a press conference at Legislature in Victoria, B.C., on May 27, 2019.
As the first biologics came off patent, Health Canada began approving biosimilars that were almost like generics but were treated differently in practice and policy. Biosimilars aren’t interchangeable at the pharmacy, which means doctors must write new prescriptions for the less-expensive product. Early biosimilars struggled to gain a toehold in the Canadian market.
Some doctors, patient advocacy groups and brand-name biologics makers lambasted the B.C. government for forcing patients with public drug coverage to take biosimilars, arguing the change was an unnecessary risk that could harm patients.“We didn’t just say, ‘well you’re wrong,’” Mr. Dix said.
The new report concluded that B.C. patients who took the cheaper versions logged a similar number of physician visits, emergency hospital admissions and antibiotic and steroid prescriptions as patients who used the original, brand-name biologics before 2019. Of 1,599 B.C. patients with inflammatory bowel disease who switched to a biosimilar of Remicade, only 17 switched back within two years.The savings produced by the policy increased each year as more patients and more biosimilars were added.
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