Have Biosimilars Helped Drive Down Drug Prices?

A new report shows that the use of biosimilars across Europe has helped drive down prices of costly biologic drugs.

Created by IMS Health at the request of the European Commission, the report demonstrates the three established therapy areas with biosimilar competition do indeed show a consistent picture of reduced average prices.

Other findings include, that an uptake of biosimilar medicines varies widely between countries and across therapeutic areas, driven by national considerations such as the types of products available in each medicine class, as well as there being potential for significant savings associated with increased competition, despite biosimilar medicines not being able to offer the same percentage price reductions as generic medicines, due to the challenges and cost of development.

The company drew on data from 2014 for their report.

The report has been endorsed by a number of groups across Europe, including The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.