Biosimilar drugs an exciting prospect

Media Release

12 December 2014

Biosimilar drugs an exciting prospect

“Biologic drugs although expensive can be life changing for people who are living with inflammatory arthritis,” Arthritis New Zealand Chief Executive Sandra Kirby said today.

“But the costs are more than offset by the benefits. Because people who take these drugs are able to work for longer, pay more taxes, and have lower needs of health and welfare services.”

“Access to the biologic drugs in New Zealand has improved over the last five years, but for arthritis these still remain the drugs of last resort, and are only being used where other alternatives have proven ineffective in disease treatment.”

“We know that biosimilar drugs are being developed. Biosimilars are replicas of biologic drugs like TNF inhibitors such as Humira. Given the size and complexity of biologic drug molecules, which have genetic material in their structure, exact replicas are not possible. This means the biosimilar drugs need to undergo the same testing for safety, efficacy and side effects as the original drugs.”

“As the biologic drugs come off patent, we can expect biosimilars to come into the market and as Pharmac already has a competitive tender process for drugs we expect that the companies marketing biosimilars will compete with the existing drug suppliers for New Zealand access. And we will need to be assured that the drugs are equally effective although they are not likely to be identical.”

As drug costs drop there should be consideration given to widening access for more people with inflammatory arthritis to experience the benefits,” Ms Kirby concluded.

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