Dr Eric Tichy Calls for Government Officials to Realign Incentives in Favor of Biosimilars

Altering reimbursement procedures needs to become a bigger priority for government officials to incentivize biosimilar utilization, according to Eric Tichy, PharmD, MBA, vice chair of pharmacy formulary at the Mayo Clinic Health System.

Transcript

What more should state and federal governments do to ensure that patients have access to biosimilars?

The other important thing [that governments should be doing] is making sure the reimbursement incentives are set up the right way where it is actually beneficial for all the different participants to use the biosimilar. The patients themselves, a lot of times they don't see much of a benefit because of the way the benefit design is set up. So, I think making sure the incentives are aligned is very important, and that's one of the areas where you do get some resistance. Making sure the provider, the payer, and the patient all have the incentive to use biosimilars. That's what will make it work really well and increase our access and uptick.