Beyond Cost: Observations on Clinical and Patient Benefits of Biosimilars in Real-World Settings

The introduction of biosimilars into healthcare systems globally is recognized by many as a healthcare success. Despite this, questions have been raised about whether biosimilars can deliver sufficient value to patients and healthcare professionals, as well as sufficient cost saving, for their use in treatment to be worthwhile. In this review, we discuss how the increasing financial burden of complex therapeutic medicines, such as biologics, can be ameliorated by off-patent biosimilar medicines, particularly with increasing worldwide incidences of cancer and other chronic diseases. We then describe real-world cases that demonstrate the significant direct and indirect benefits of biosimilars to patients and healthcare systems beyond costs. Healthcare sustainability is crucial to ensuring that healthcare systems can continue to deliver high-quality care to patients. The savings realized from the introduction of biosimilars have expanded treatment options and improved access to therapies across a spectrum of diseases. Cost savings from biosimilar use have also led to changes in treatment guidelines, increasing the availability of biologic medicines for earlier lines of therapy. This expansion of access can have a positive impact on the overall patient experience and can reduce the overall disease burden. However, the adoption of biosimilars has not been universally successful, and faces challenges in the current healthcare landscape and in the pharmaceutical development pipeline.