Dr Steven Yates Shares His Institutions's Policies on Nonmedical Switching and New Biosimilar Starts

The Center for Biosimilars® interviewed Steven Yates, MD, a medical oncologist and medical director at Intermountain Healthcare in Las Vegas, Nevada. Three years ago, Intermountain hired him to lead its biosimilar adoption effort.

Dr Yates describes Intermountain’s experience with switching patients to biosimilars vs initiating biosimilar treatment only for biologics-naïve patients. Early on, Intermountain did not switch patients from reference products until their course of therapy was complete. Intermountain is now 100% biosimilar focused, Yates says. Strong patient support is employed to build acceptance for biosimilars, and patients are asked for consent prior to a biosimilar switch. Yates says the institution has experienced little pushback, and the resistance that has occurred has been mostly over reimbursement issues, where patient assistance programs have preferred use of reference products.