Cate Lockhart: Putting the US Biosimilar Industry in Perspective

The Center for Biosimilars® recently spoke with Cate Lockhart, PharmD, PhD, executive director of the Biologics and Biosimilar Collective Intelligence Consortium (BBCIC), about biosimilar utilization, the possibility for the first interchangeable biosimilar, and the need for more real world evidence.

Lockhart discussed the granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSFs) drug market, which includes filgrastim and pegfilgrastim biosimilars. Although infliximab biosimilar uptake has been slow, G-CSF biosimilars are considered a success story, in that utilization trends for these products are trending upward.

She predicted significant evolution of the biologics market as more anti–tumor necrosis factor products and biosimilars are launched. Further, she noted that in the anti-inflammatory space, there are a number of nonbiosimilars and new originator products emerging. This trend will affect the utilization of biosimilars, she said.

Lockhart also described the prospect for the first interchangeable biosimilar insulin (Semglee) as exciting, because it holds the potential for lower costs of insulin and some other interesting market dynamics.

The quality and availability of real world evidence has improved in recent years, although in some cases the data being used for assessment of clinical trends were not gathered for that purpose and so are not ideal, she said. The BBCIC and other organizations have worked to enrich the quality of these data so that the utility is more relevant to needs.