Bhuvana Sagar, MD, Discusses Maintaining Cost Efficiency While Using Biosimilars

Bhuvana Sagar, MD, the national medical executive at Cigna Health Care, discusses how Cigna has balanced using multiple biosimilars for 1 originator while also maintaining cost efficiency.

As more biosimilars enter the market, competition for market share overall helps to decrease the total cost of care; however, too many choices for a reference drug can create cost inefficiencies.

Sagar explained that in order to manage this, Cigna met with its large providers, including community oncologists and others, to gain feedback on current practice issues.

Knowing which drugs are on the market and which ones are gaining the most market share helps to lower the unit cost for prescriptions and ensures cost-efficiency for both patients and employers. Sagar said that working with providers is how Cigna makes sure that providers can accommodate their policies as easily as possible.