Stakeholder perspectives on the sustainability of the United States biosimilars market.

Biologic therapies play a critical role in modern medical practice but also present challenges for payers, patients, and other stakeholders because of their high cost. Biosimilars can mitigate the cost pressures of reference biologic therapy because they are typically priced at least 25% lower, providing a means to administer cutting-edge biologic therapy while also managing cost of care. In fact, the US health care system has saved an estimated $23.

Pegfilgrastim Biosimilars in US Supportive Oncology: A Narrative Review of Administration Options and Economic Considerations to Maximize Patient Benefit.

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) biologics, such as pegfilgrastim, are a standard of care in supportive cancer treatment that are administered once per chemotherapy cycle to reduce the incidence of febrile neutropenia. The high cost of these biologics in the United States can be a limiting factor to accessing care; however, lower-cost pegfilgrastim biosimilars have been available for several years for patients requiring prophylaxis of febrile neutropenia. Different options for pegfilgrastim administration are also now available to accommodate specific patient preferences.

Real-world evidence of a successful biosimilar adoption program.

Biosimilars have introduced new opportunities to reduce the disproportionately high US healthcare spending on biologic medications. This article describes strategic utilization management program initiatives designed to promote biosimilar utilization, reduce biologic drug costs and increase sustainability in a US nonprofit health system. Key components of these biosimilar utilization management program initiatives included expedited procedures to evaluate and establish the formulary status of biosimilars, enhanced contracting negotiations, specially designed electronic medical record tools to guide physician prescribing, payer coverage analysis, evaluations of biologic-utilization trends and financial performance analysis.

Comparative efficacy of combination drug therapy in refractory epilepsy.

Objective: We retrospectively examined treatment records of developmentally disabled adults with highly refractory epilepsy to determine whether any combinations of 8 of the most commonly used antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) possessed superior efficacy.

Methods: We obtained the treatment records from 148 developmentally disabled adults with refractory epilepsy cared for in 2 state-run institutions. These records charted monthly convulsive seizure occurrence and AED regimen over 30 years.