Kalveer Flora, MPharm: Biosimilar Savings and the NHS

Transcript

As we know, the [National Health Service, NHS] is always in the news as being cash-strapped. The demand is so high, whereas the resources we have are so low. So if we know that we can save money by using a drug that’s just as efficacious and works just as well as a more expensive drug, it’s so beneficial for the NHS to use a more cost-effective drug.

This has been seen through using etanercept, rituximab, and adalimumab biosimilars. The NHS has been able to save a pot of money which they can use for more expensive treatments with cancer. We know now that, in the UK, [National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE], which is a regulator that approves medicines for us, has now approved CAR-T therapy, which is a new drug therapy which is very expensive, and we’ve only been able to do that through biosimilar savings.

So it’s using savings from biosimilars to use in cancer, multiple sclerosis, migraine treatments, and that’s the way forward now.