Vizient, Inc. has sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Arthritis Advisory Committee endorsing the continued implementation of the U.S. biosimilar pathway. On February 9, 2016, the committee is scheduled to hold an advisory hearing on an application for a biosimilar version of infliximab, currently only available as the branded biologic Remicade® (Janssen Biotech).
From Vizient’s perspective, it’s critically important that some much needed pricing relief be made available for providers and patients for infliximab and other filed biosimilar applications. Even a modest price reduction of between 20% and 30% would mean price relief in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion to $1.8 billion for these drugs. In light of the well-publicized price increases that drug companies are imposing on customers in recent months, an opportunity to provide some much needed pharmaceutical pricing relief should be championed.
In the letter, Vizient notes that over the last five years the company has worked to educate the pharmacists, physicians and other clinicians across its membership of 5,200 health systems and affiliates, which include community hospitals, academic medical centers, pediatric hospitals, and approximately 167,000 non-acute facilities, of the concepts of biosmilarity determination.
