What is Needed to Increase Prescriber Uptake of Biosimilars?

Ron Lanton: Prescribers need to feel a little bit more comfortable about what these biological products are. There’s facts out there but there’s so much skepticism, nobody really knows where it is, because like, the FDA, they haven’t come out with interchangeability, and I think that’s important, but there’s a different standard that the biosimilar manufacturers have to be in order to show how they’re interchangeable. So, we’re all waiting for that, you know you’ve got the insurance companies that are thinking "should I put more of this on the formulary?"

They are starting to look more at value based contracts with manufacturers where they have to meet certain metrics in order to stay on the formulary, and if not they get off the formulary or they have to pay the payer community back for the metrics that the manufacturers product didn’t meet. So, it really depends, I think, you know, just more information needs to be given and obviously specialty pharmacy, as we’re all about education, so you’re already kind of knowing what’s going on. I just encourage everybody in the SP community just to keep watching, we’ll see how this develops.