Biosimilars Improve Health System Resilience in Latin American, Caribbean Nations

Biosimilars possess the potential to drastically enhance patient access and ensure long-term sustainability for regional health systems across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), according to a new narrative review published in Current Opinion in Immunology. The analysis, conducted by María Herrán, MS, and Juan-Manuel Anaya, MD, focused on the transformative role of biosimilars in high-cost therapeutic areas like oncology and chronic autoimmune diseases.

Rationale: Addressing the Access Crisis

The authors conducted the review to address a persistent and costly challenge facing healthcare providers and payers across the low- and middle-income regions of LAC: the prohibitive expense of original biologic therapies. While these advanced treatments have revolutionized care for people with complex and chronic conditions, their high price tags have significantly limited their widespread availability, creating deep disparities in treatment access.

The study underscored that, as cost-effective alternatives, biosimilars offered a powerful mechanism to shift this paradigm. The central objective of the analysis was to map the full spectrum of economic benefits—beyond simple cost savings—that biosimilars could bring to fragmented and often financially constrained public and private health systems throughout the region.

Major Economic Data Points and Findings

Herrán and Anaya's review identified four primary economic levers activated by biosimilar introduction: cost reduction, access expansion, market competition, and relief of financial pressure. The authors concluded that the cumulative impact of these factors positioned biosimilars as an essential tool for fiscal stability and public health improvement.

Specifically, the analysis concluded that the introduction of biosimilars has the potential to:

• Reduce Treatment Costs: By entering the market at a lower price point than reference products, biosimilars provided immediate opportunities for payers to achieve significant budget savings.
• Expand Access to Essential Medicines: The lower per-unit cost made previously unattainable biologic treatments accessible to a greater number of people across all socioeconomic segments.
• Promote Market Competition: The presence of multiple biosimilar products targeting the same reference biologic was found to foster healthy competition, which drove down overall drug expenditures.
• Ease Financial Pressures: By generating savings, biosimilars allowed health systems to reallocate funds, thereby reducing the heavy financial burden placed on public sector budgets and freeing capital for other essential services.

The authors projected that the biosimilars industry in LAC was poised for accelerated growth, anticipating a major shift driven by enhanced regional regulations, evolving market dynamics, increased investment, and a greater emphasis on stakeholder education. They argued that cultivating a robust biosimilar sector was key to improving overall health care resiliency and economic stability throughout the region.

"We found that the successful adoption of biosimilars is not merely about saving money in the short term, but is fundamentally an issue of health equity and long-term economic stability for the entire health system," the authors noted in the published review.

Patient Demographics and Study Limitations

While the review’s focus was macro-level economics and health system impact, the authors centered their findings on improved care for people with complex and chronic conditions, including those with cancer and autoimmune diseases. Since this was a narrative review that synthesized existing literature and economic models, it did not include new primary data or specific, quantified patient demographics from a single cohort study. The review instead provided a high-level framework of economic outcomes impacting the general population receiving specialized biologic care in the LAC region.

The authors were careful to contextualize their findings within the current environment. A recognized limitation inherent to this analysis was the highly variable and fragmented regulatory and market landscape across different LAC countries. The potential for accelerated growth, as mapped in the review, was contingent upon the successful implementation of the necessary regulatory enhancements and education initiatives required to address existing market inconsistencies and foster trust among prescribers and patients. Without regulatory alignment and continued investment, the full projected economic benefits would not be realized.

Ultimately, Herrán and Anaya concluded that the strategic integration of biosimilars represented a pivotal opportunity for payers and policymakers to transform access to high-quality care for individuals in the LAC region.

Reference

Herrán M, Anaya J-M. Mapping economic outcomes: how biosimilars enhance access to health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. Curr Opin Immunol. 2025:96:102606. doi:10.1016/j.coi.2025.102606