Biosimilars in practice

This chapter introduces several considerations to aid pharmacists and other healthcare professionals (HCPs) when scrutinising biosimilar options for formulary inclusion. As such, objective assessments of safety, clinical and economic outcomes related to candidate biosimilars are performed by Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) committees (also known as Drugs & Therapeutics Committees) – in which pharmacists play important clinical advisory roles. The aim of P&T committees is to appraise not only each product’s characteristics, but also several manufacturer-related factors.

Apart from the topics covered here, HCP and patient education are essential prerogatives (Chapter 10). Pharmacists involved in formulary review for a biosimilar should consider whether the overall evidence justifies the biosimilar’s inclusion for each proposed indication as well as several pricing considerations beyond simply drug acquisition cost and non-drug costs, as detailed in this chapter. Once included in the formulary, biosimilars should be safely and effectively integrated into treatment algorithms and have safety and clinical monitoring in place post-introduction.