New IMS report highlights the importance of biosimilar competition

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New IMS report highlights the importance of biosimilar competition on patient access and treatment cost of biological medicines

16.12.15

The European pharmaceutical industry welcomes the new report by IMS Health on ‘The Impact of Biosimilar Competition’.

The new report, which was prepared by IMS Health for the European Commission services with initial contributions from EFPIA, EBG, and EuropaBio, was published today together with the summary of the ‘Workshop on Access to and Uptake of Biosimilar Medicinal Products’ of 6 October 2015.

Based on 2014 data, the report describes the effects of biosimilar competition on price and volume in Europe. This report offers an independent, neutral source of information on which evidence-based policy discussions should be launched. Five key takeaways from the report are:

Sustainable competition can lead to both price decreases and increased access to treatment with high quality biological medicines earlier in the treatment algorithm,
There is a weak correlation between biosimilar market share and price reduction, furthermore, as biosimilar medicines have a more sophisticated and costly development program compared to generic medicines, the same price reductions cannot be expected,
Increased patient access is most pronounced in countries which originally had low usage of biological medicines,
Product portfolios are diversifying with manufacturers expanding into the biosimilar market while also continuing to innovate to improve the standard of care,
Uptake of biosimilar medicines varies widely between countries and across therapeutic areas

Over the next few years, we expect that the market for off-patent biological medicines, including biosimilar medicines in Europe will continue to grow and evolve. As both the opportunity and the need for healthcare systems to benefit from competition increases, there will be a continuing requirement to design policies which ensure sustainable competition in the off-patent biologics market. As industry stakeholders, we appreciate the continuous efforts by the European Commission Directorate General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) and look forward to next year’s Workshop on biosimilar medicines and the updated report by IMS Health on Impact of biosimilar competition based on 2015 data.

The report by IMS Health and the report summarising the discussions during the 6 October DG GROW workshop can be found here.
About the issuers of this press release

The industry is represented by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), the European Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association (EGA) and the European Association for Bio-industries (EuropaBio).

For further information, please contact:
EFPIA: Communications Team, +32 2626 2555,communications@efpia.eu
EGA/EBG: Doris Casares, +32 2 533 98 18, dcasares@egagenerics.com
EuropaBio: Cosmin Popa, +32 2 739 11 73, c.popa@europabio.org

About EFPIA and EBE
The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) represents the pharmaceutical industry operating in Europe. Through its direct membership of 33 national associations and 39 leading pharmaceutical companies, EFPIA is the voice on the EU scene of 1,900 companies committed to researching, developing and bringing to patients new medicines that will improve health and the quality of life around the world.

European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises (EBE) represents the voice of biopharmaceutical companies of all sizes in Europe and is a specialised group within the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). Established in 2000, EBE is recognised as the leading biopharmaceutical association in Europe. Read more about EBE and our work at www.ebe-biopharma.eu.

About the EBG and EGA
The European Biosimilars Group (EBG), a sector group of the EGA, represents the leading companies in the biosimilar medicines space. The EBG Members bring competition to the biologicals market, thereby increasing access to highly innovative medical treatments to patients, in Europe and around the world, and supporting the sustainability of the European healthcare systems.
The EGA represents the European generic, biosimilar and value-added medicines industries, which provide high-quality cost-competitive medicines to millions of European patients. Companies represented within the EGA provide over 160,000 skilled, high value direct jobs in Europe. Without generic medicines, payers in Europe would have had to pay €100 BN more in 2014. Generic medicines account for 56% of all dispensed medicines but for only 22% of the pharmaceutical expenditure in Europe. The European generic, biosimilar and value-added medicines industries’ vision is to provide sustainable access to high quality medicines for all European patients, based on 5 important pillars: patients, quality, value, sustainability and partnership. For more information please visit: www.egagenerics.com and follow EGA and EBG on Twitter at: @egagenerics and @ebgbiosimilars.

About EuropaBio
EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, promotes an innovative and dynamic European biotechnology industry. EuropaBio and its members are committed to the socially responsible use of biotechnology to improve quality of life, to prevent, diagnose, treat and cure diseases, to improve the quality and quantity of food and feedstuffs and to move towards a biobased and zero-waste economy. EuropaBio represents 77 corporate and associate members and bio regions, and 16 national biotechnology associations in turn representing over 1800 biotech SMEs. Read more about our work at www.europabio.org.