Pharmacoeconomic aspects of biosimilars

Abstract

The tendency towards replacement of reference preparation for biosimilars can be observed around the world. Registrational studies, concerning biosimilars suggest the comparison of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs, as well as their clinical efficacy, tolerability and immunogenicity in comparison with the original drugs. Biosimilars of monoclonal antibodies (bevacizumab, trastuzumab and rituximab) registered in Russia are widely used in oncology. The introduction of biosimilars to the pharmaceutical market has reduced costs (15-85%) on appropriate biological products and increased the availability of medicinal aid. Costs of rituximab have reduced by more than RUB 900 mln for the past 3 years of using biosimilar of rituximab in patients under 7 High-Cost Nosologies Federal Program. The first results of the treatment using such biosimilars as bevacizumab and trastuzumab in 2016, showed a significant increase in the availability of vital and highly effective drugs.

Keywords

• biosimilar
• bevacizumab
• rituximab
• trastuzumab
• costs