Michael Kolodziej, MD: Biosimilars in Alternative Payment Models

Transcript

Without a doubt, they'll be integrated. And I think it's funny; I gave a talk yesterday to the New York State Society of Oncology about biosimilars, and really there were 2 messages. One is, if we look back on the history of oncology, and how generics changed things, people embraced generics, and honestly, they mitigated the cost magnificently.

Now, I'm not an idiot. I understand biosimilars are different. However, the regulatory process that the FDA is put in place for biosimilars is extremely rigorous, and I think most oncologists are going to be comfortable prescribing them, and as time goes on, they’ll be more and more comfortable prescribing them.

If we look at Europe, there have been no ill effects of biosimilars and they’re 10 years ahead of us. So I think that, if you're in an alternative payment model, that is easy for you to do, it doesn't force you to confront utilization, physician practice behavior—it's easy.

Now, there's a flip side to this. Even if you don't want to do it, the payers are going to make you do it. And each payer may wind up with a different biosimilar of choice. But payers, even if they're not in a value-based care model, are going to force you to do it. There’s just no question about it.