Elaine Husni, MD, MPH: Biosimilars and Cost Savings for Patients

December 31, 2019

Elaine Husni, MD, MPH, vice chair and director of the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Center in the Orthopedic and Rheumatologic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, discusses whether biosimilars are generating cost savings for patients with inflammatory diseases.

Transcript

So, I do think bringing down the cost of therapy is important. It has to be affordable—these patients are usually on it for long periods of time. This is a chronic illness, so we are dealing with the healthcare value-based system as a whole. I do think that biosimilars, in my mind, when they were first being developed, was that they would have huge cost savings. So, in my mind, huge cost savings is not 10%, 20%, 25%, which is what we’re seeing. To me, huge cost savings is at least slashing it down by half. Half price—50%, right? So, I’m not seeing that.

So, I do think that it’s not as cost saving as I had hoped. So, it’s a little bit of a letdown when I’m only seeing a small percentage decrease in biosimilars.