BioSim welcomes the recommendations for the promotion of biosimilars that the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility, AIReF, includes in its study on "Hospital expenditure of the National Health System: pharmacy and investment in capital goods”, published at the beginning of October.
In the words of its general director, Encarnación Cruz, "we are very pleased to see that the measures that
BioSim has been advocating since its founding are clearly promoted by AIReF”.
Specifically, training programs for health professionals and information for patients, proposals for a specific regulatory framework and competitive public procurement of medicines based on quality criteria beyond price have been an important part of BioSim's activity since its start in 2015.
Additionally, BioSim finds a perfect fit for its present objectives in other measures advocated by AIReF, such as "suggesting incentive models and greater clarity on interchangeability and legal certainty in the face of change, in line with other European countries, is a support for the shared profit projects that we hope to start in the coming months”, continues Cruz.
Since their introduction into the Spanish pharmaceutical market in 2006, biosimilars have provided significant economic relief for the SNS pharmaceutical bill, specifically in hospital pharmacy spending.
For the next three years, savings of more than 2.800 million euros are expected. The figure advanced by AIReF is based on the report on the Analysis of the Budgetary Impact of Biosimilar Medicines in the Spanish National Health System (2009-2022) led by Professor Manuel García Goñi (UCM) and commissioned by BioSim, which Association will present in its entirety in November.
In the current context of the economic crisis derived from the COVID-19 pandemic, biosimilars are revealed once again as a sustainability tool for the SNS. Maximizing the future savings that they can offer our healthcare system involves implementing specific, more ambitious policies that establish aligned and transparent incentives to encourage their use and that allow part of the released resources to revert to clinical services for quality improvement. assistance to patients. All this without forgetting that the training of physicians and information for patients and citizens in general must continue to be the pillar on which any initiative in this regard pivots.