Biosimilar medicines are transforming treatment by enabling better access to biological medicines while improving the sustainability of European healthcare budgets. For the first time, Medicines for Europe has reviewed the policies supporting biosimilar medicines in Europe in the ‘2017 Market Review – Biosimilar Medicines Markets’.
The 2017 Market Review provides a comprehensive overview of biosimilar medicines policies in 31 European countries detailing the status of biosimilar medicines availability, pricing system, tendering, reimbursement, and benefit sharing for physicians, pharmacists and patients.
The review illustrates that governments have realized that biosimilar medicines need a tailor-made policy framework and have disentangled their pricing policies from those of generic medicines. Physician-led switching, information and education for patients remain the key drivers for increased use of biosimilar medicines. EU education efforts , led by the European Commission, will facilitate these national activities thanks to the availability of translations into all EU languages later this year.
Adrian van den Hoven, Director General Medicines for Europe, commented: “Biosimilar medicines bring competition to the market and greatly improve access to biological therapies that are out of reach for too many patients in Europe. This overview shows that policy-makers need dedicated policies to provide more sustainable access to biosimilar medicines. Benefit sharing with stakeholders has proven to be the most successful approach to improve access and we encourage governments to learn from the best practices around Europe”.