The Madrid Health Service hosts the Conference "Policies for the promotion of biosimilar medicines in the Autonomous Communities: sharing the experience"

• The Community of Madrid, host of the meeting, has shared its experience of early incentives for hospitals to improve efficiency in pharmaceutical spending.
• Galicia, Andalusia and the Valencian Community have shown how to promote biosimilar policies in primary care, improving the training of professionals or through information on efficiency and health results.

SERMAS has hosted at its headquarters the celebration of the Conference "Biosimilars: lessons learned and future challenges" coordinated by the General Subdirectorate of Pharmacy and promoted by the Spanish Association of Biosimilar Medicines, BioSim.

The session was opened by the Deputy Minister of Economic Management, Pedro Irigoyen, and the president of BioSim, Joaquín Rodrigo. Pedro Irigoyen, has highlighted the commitment of the Ministry of Health for the promotion of biosimilar medicines, responsible for savings of more than 80 million euros in 2022 in the Community of Madrid. According to Irigoyen, this meeting "allows the sharing of good practices in the promotion of biosimilar medicines between the regions", something that is in line with the recommendations of the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe. For his part, Joaquín Rodrigo, president of BioSim, has expressed "the need for the administration and industry to find formulas that achieve a balance between the sustainability of health systems and profitability for developer laboratories." Thus, Rodrigo continues, "we will ensure that biosimilars continue to be developed in the future and we continue to generate efficiency and improvements in patient access."

Encarna Cruz, general director of BioSim, has focused her presentation on the role of biosimilars beyond sustainability "as clear facilitators of earlier access for patients to biological medicines" and exposing the future lines of development of biosimilar medicines .

Subsequently, the Deputy Director General of Pharmacy and Health Products of SERMAS, María José Calvo, shared with those present the incentive case implemented in SERMAS in 2022 by which hospitals that present a project aimed at the efficient use of medicines biosimilars could benefit from an upfront incentive directed at clinical service. The particularity of this program has been that the incentive was carried out before the savings materialized "as a sign of confidence in the clinical teams". The results have been clear with an increase in the use of biosimilars from 60% to 66% of the share and a return on investment of more than 10 million euros derived from this program alone.

The round table "Policies for the promotion of biosimilar medicines in the Autonomous Communities: sharing the experience" has had the participation of three autonomous communities. Galicia, the Valencian Community and Andalusia, moderated by Ainhoa ​​Aranguren, Head of the Planning, Purchasing and Pharmaceutical Projects Division of SERMAS.

Silvia Reboredo, Deputy Director General of Pharmacy at SERGAS, has shared the Galician experience in the introduction of biosimilars in primary care, which presents the best rates of use of biosimilars in this area at a national level. According to Reboredo, the individualized work of analysis of each one of the biosimilar molecules, the positioning of the biosimilar in the therapeutic guidelines and the establishment of objective and achievable indicators are decisive factors. She also highlighted "the need to coordinate the strategy to promote biosimilars between hospital care and primary care, since many prescriptions for biosimilars in primary care are initiated in the hospital setting."

For his part, José Manuel Ventura, general director of Pharmacy and Health Products of the Valencian Community, presented the collection of data that relates the cost of biological therapy based on the health result obtained by the treatment; These data come from the information system designed together with the clinical professionals responsible for the patient. This information allows prescribers to know the therapeutic alternatives and their cost-benefit ratio. Although this measure has contributed to an efficient use of biological medicines with biosimilar competition in the Valencian Community, Ventura highlights the need for the adoption of biosimilars to be agile because "if the speed of cost reduction is slow, a significant savings opportunity for the health administration”.

Carlos García Collado, deputy director of Pharmacy and Benefits of the Andalusian Health Service, has shared the initiative of the Ministry of Health and Families of Andalusia to improve the knowledge of its health professionals about biosimilars as well as the information to citizens. Thus, in 2021, and channeled through the Andalusian School of Public Health, the course was launched Introduction to Biosimilar Medicines which is now in its third edition. The Ministry has also promoted the dissemination of biosimilars in the Po sectionr your health of CanalSur and the inclusion of specific content on biosimilars on its official website in what is "a clear commitment by the Ministry for the dissemination and information to citizens about biosimilar medicines", in the words of Collado.

The deputy director of Pharmacy of the Ministry of Health, Javier García del Pozo, has participated in the Conference, who has highlighted "the need to share information and good practices among those responsible for pharmaceutical management".