Joaquín Rodrigo: "This new headquarters represents a turning point for BioSim"
- The Deputy Minister of Health Care of the Community of Madrid, Manuel Molina, inaugurates the new headquarters and congratulates the association "for the great journey it has traveled in its first year of operation".
- "Achieving a specific regulatory regulation for biosimilars, which includes incentive measures, is our main objective in the short and medium term," Rodrigo highlighted.
- "We want to be a reference and a loyal ally for the National Health System" underlined Múzquiz, General Director of BioSim.
The Spanish Association of Biosimilar Medicines, BioSim, has inaugurated this morning its new headquarters in Madrid. The act was presided over by the Deputy Minister of Health Care of the Community of Madrid, Manuel Molina, and by the president of BioSim, Joaquín Rodrigo, and was attended by the employer's associates as well as the members of its Advisory Council .
Deputy Minister Molina congratulated BioSim for its offices, "which are a new milestone in the development of this ambitious project, as well as a reflection of the important steps that BioSim has taken since its constitution a year ago to become the interlocutor of administrations and professionals in the matter of biosimilars”.
Molina pointed out that "biosimilar drugs represent an opportunity for the National Health System, by facilitating access to complex therapies for a greater number of patients, thus optimizing the use of available resources and promoting, in turn, the innovation".
For his part, the president of BioSim, Joaquín Rodrigo, stressed that "the inauguration of this new headquarters marks a turning point for BioSim after its first year of operation." "This year - Rodrigo continued - we have achieved important achievements such as the start-up of the association itself, the constitution of our Advisory Council or the fact of putting in the public debate the added value that biosimilars bring to all the agents of the health system.
The president of BioSim has highlighted that, at present, “BioSim's main objectives are to achieve specific regulations adapted to the particularities of biosimilar medicines, which include long-term incentive measures; as well as deploying a significant effort in training and information activities, to health professionals, administrations and patients, with the aim of positioning the biosimilar as what it is, a high-quality biotechnological product and subject to strict authorization and surveillance controls. required by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The general director of BioSim, Regina Múzquiz, has coincided in highlighting the legislative and training challenges as the main purposes of BioSim at this time. In turn, Múzquiz has underlined the "open and integrated spirit of BioSim, which wants to be an ally for the National Health System (SNS), contributing to its sustainability, universality and equity". "To do this - Múzquiz has pointed out - we will make feasible and realistic proposals and we will negotiate from loyalty to the institutions and maintaining as a priority the quality of our health system and the benefit of the patient, which, ultimately, must be the fundamental objective of all that we participate in the SNS”.
What is BioSim
BioSim was established in November 2015 as the Spanish Association of Biosimilar Medicines. It is currently made up of 16 pharmaceutical companies that develop and/or market biosimilars in Spain. Some of them also have original biologicals in their portfolio.
Specifically, those associated with BioSim are; Accord, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cinfa, Gedeon Richter, Kern Pharma, Lilly, mAbxience, Merck, Mylan, Novartis, Pfizer, Rovi, Sandoz, Sanofi, Stada, and Teva.
Biosimilars are biological medicines, produced from a living organism through a procedure equivalent in process and quality to that of any original biological.
Biosimilar drugs are authorized by the EMA after having demonstrated their biosimilarity in a comparability exercise with the original biologic. This evaluation includes an exhaustive structural and functional comparison together with preclinical and clinical studies, with the purpose of demonstrating that the slight structural differences between the biosimilar and the original do not affect its efficacy and safety.
The new headquarters of BioSim is located on Calle Condesa de Venadito in Madrid. These are facilities designed to promote teamwork and thus reflect the integrating spirit of the association.
