Elaine Husni, MD, MPH: Rheumatologists' Comfort With Biosimilars

Transcript

So regarding biosimilars, I think anything new is always difficult, any change, so I'm not sure that I may have any problems with biosimilars. You know, as a whole, I think the problem more is just having less familiarity and then having to explain to a patient that “I'm going to put you on something that I don't have any experience with.”

I think that's where the perhaps uncomfortable part lies. It's not so much in, you know, maybe what a particular biosimilar is, it’s that we are asked to use these drugs without any prior experience, we're asked to use them just because they are biosimilar.

I think we have to take a step back and think about what we're being asked to do. So many times when I'm asked to do a treatment that's not a biosimilar, I gain experience from it, and I start the medication. This is mandated, in a way, a switch. So meaning, I don't have prior experience with a biosimilar but yet I have to convince the patient that this is their first-line treatment.