IMS Health: Surge in Biosimilars to Drive Significant Change in Health System Costs, Patient Access and Competition by 2020
March 29 2016 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Sustainable Competitive Markets and Support
for Innovation, Clinical Education and Incentives Needed to Deliver
Full Value
Greater acceptance of biosimilar medicines in a growing number
of therapy areas and an active pipeline of 56 new products in
clinical development are expected to deliver total savings of as
much as $110 billion to health systems across Europe and the U.S.
through 2020, according to new research released today by the IMS
Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Biosimilars, which compete
with original biologic medicines, can provide physicians and
patients with greater access to advanced treatments and offer
budgetary relief to payers in the face of intensifying healthcare
cost pressures. Health systems best positioned to capitalize on the
benefits of biosimilars support functioning competitive
markets—where manufacturers are motivated to participate over the
long term, and where physicians are at the heart of the
decision-making process.
The IMS Institute report, Delivering on the Potential of
Biosimilar Medicines: The Role of Functioning Competitive Markets,
found that by 2020, biosimilars will start competing with original
biologics that have current sales of $50 billion annually. The
extent that these biosimilars provide savings opportunities will
depend on policy and implementation approaches that to date have
varied across the European Union. As these medicines also become
available in the U.S., stakeholder education and incentives will
play a vital role in ensuring biosimilars deliver their full
potential.
“The prospect of more affordable biologic options that are safe
and effective opens up opportunities for health systems to expand
access to more patients, and frees up resources for investment in
new areas,” said Murray Aitken, IMS Health senior vice president
and executive director of the IMS Institute for Healthcare
Informatics. “This also can yield significant cost savings—but not
all markets are ready to fully benefit from the imminent surge of
biosimilar molecules.”
In its latest study, the IMS Institute highlights the following
findings:
- Considerable variations across the
EU in payer policy approaches are limiting the biosimilar
opportunity. Across Europe, payers have adopted a variety of
approaches to encourage physicians to prescribe biosimilar
medicines, motivate manufacturers to participate in the market, and
provide adequate clinical evidence to support the prescribing of
these treatments. Not all stakeholders are using competition to
maximize in a sustainable way the benefits offered by biosimilars.
Germany is among the most successful countries on this front,
educating physicians and implementing measures designed to
stimulate biosimilar prescribing. By contrast, Austria’s
approach—where some biosimilar medicines are subject to mandatory
price reductions that may force manufacturers out of the market—has
had the opposite effect, resulting in reduced access to some
biosimilar products.
- Biosimilars use in the EU and U.S.
may yield total savings of $56-110 billion over the next five
years. By 2020, eight major biologic medicines are expected to
lose exclusivity protection, including treatments for auto-immune
disorders and diabetes. By opening markets to biosimilar
competition, healthcare systems could realize a 30 percent
reduction in price per treatment day compared to originator
biologics. The extent of actual savings will depend on policy
decisions made and actions taken around incentives, education and
pricing.
- Patient access to biologic
treatments has grown by as much as 100 percent following the
availability of biosimilars. In the EU, the use of
erythropoietins (EPOs), granulocyte-colony stimulating factors
(G-CSFs) and human growth hormone (HGH) have all risen following
the launch of biosimilar versions. This increase was heavily driven
by the availability of biosimilars, as well as other factors such
as expanded indications. In markets where access to these molecules
was previously restricted, including Romania, Bulgaria, and the
Czech Republic, average uptake of EPOs increased by more than 250
percent following the introduction of biosimilars. The greater use
of biologics following the introduction of biosimilars can be
attributed to their lower cost, as well as revisions to treatment
guidelines that reflect improved cost effectiveness.
- Intensifying competition and greater
choice are expected as new biosimilars reach the market. Some
30 companies are actively developing biosimilar medicines for
launch and are pursuing biosimilar versions of 16 distinct
molecules that will lead to greater competition by 2020. The
majority of biosimilars in development are for versions of
infliximab, etanercept, rituximab and adalimumab. This robust
pipeline represents an opportunity for payers to realize savings,
and for physicians and patients to ensure greater access to these
important treatments.
- Capturing the benefits of biosimilar
medicines requires a balance between controlling price and ensuring
a sustainable, competitive marketplace. A narrow focus by
payers on price alone risks constraining the longer-term
opportunities for savings. This would make the biosimilars market
less attractive for manufacturers—reducing incentives to invest in
the development of subsequent waves of biosimilars. A balanced
approach that incorporates education of physicians, patients and
payers, and includes appropriate incentives for physicians and
manufacturers, will help ensure that the benefits of biosimilars
are fully realized.
The full report, including a detailed description of the
methodology, is available at www.theimsinstitute.org. The study,
based on independent research and analysis conducted by the IMS
Institute for Healthcare Informatics, was funded by Novartis.
About the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics
The IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics provides key policy
setters and decision makers in the global health sector with unique
and transformational insights into healthcare dynamics derived from
granular analysis of information. It is a research-driven entity
with a worldwide reach that collaborates with external healthcare
experts from across academia and the public and private sectors to
objectively apply IMS Health’s proprietary global information and
analytical assets. More information about the IMS Institute can be
found at: http://www.theimsinstitute.org.
About IMS Health
IMS Health (NYSE:IMS) is a leading global information and
technology services company providing clients in the healthcare
industry with end-to-end solutions to measure and improve their
performance. Our 7,500 services experts connect configurable SaaS
applications to 10+ petabytes of complex healthcare data in the IMS
One™ cloud platform, delivering unique insights into diseases,
treatments, costs and outcomes. The company’s 15,000 employees
blend global consistency and local market knowledge across 100
countries to help clients run their operations more efficiently.
Customers include pharmaceutical, consumer health and medical
device manufacturers and distributors, providers, payers,
government agencies, policymakers, researchers and the financial
community.
As a global leader in protecting individual patient privacy, IMS
Health uses anonymous healthcare data to deliver critical,
real-world disease and treatment insights. These insights help
biotech and pharmaceutical companies, medical researchers,
government agencies, payers and other healthcare stakeholders to
identify unmet treatment needs and understand the effectiveness and
value of pharmaceutical products in improving overall health
outcomes. Additional information is available at
www.imshealth.com.
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IMS HealthTor Constantino,
+1-484-567-6732tconstantino@us.imshealth.com
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