One of the items with a growing weight in the health budget in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) according to a 2013 report it is the pharmaceutical bill. Undoubtedly, biological medicines dispensed mainly in hospitals contribute to the notable increase in the bill. It is estimated that in the OECD countries as a whole, if hospital medications are included, the bill amounts to 20% of health spending, and in the case of Spain, up to 25%.

The strong and growing economic impact of hospital biological drugs on the pharmaceutical bill is explained by their high cost of research, development and manufacturing. Far from diminishing IMS Health and other organizations anticipate an even greater increase in the coming years. IMS estimates that total sales of biologics in 2017 will represent a total of 166.000 million dollars, which will mean 15% of the global pharmaceutical market largely attributable to the widespread use of monoclonal antibodies.

These forecasts reflect that the consumption of medicines will have a growing budgetary impact for the national health systems, which will have very serious difficulties in assuming it. An impact that is expected to be unsustainable.

Patient access to biological medicines must be guaranteed while mitigating the detrimental economic effects that they entail. The rise in demand for biologics, coupled with the expiration of patents, has encouraged the development and launch of biosimilar drugs: quality biological medicines and equivalent to the originals in their efficacy and safety, but with a significantly lower price. The need to reduce the bill while maintaining quality has increased the penetration of biosimilars. This results in positive effects for patients and for healthcare systems, which by incentivizing the use of biosimilars can maintain quality at a lower cost.

It is estimated that the biosimilar is launched with a discount of between 20 and 35% with respect to the reference product. A report estimated that in the European Union alone, the replacement of original biologics with biosimilars, assuming an average saving of up to 35%, would free up between 11.800 and 33.400 billion euros between 2007 and 2020 in eight EU countries, including Spain. This money, which de facto could be counted as savings can then be used to purchase innovative medicines or other health resources for the benefit of patients.

For this reason, the biosimilar stands as an option to recommend when faced with the therapeutic need for a biologic.