Implementation Strategies of Biosimilars in Healthcare Systems: The Path Forward.

BACKGROUND: Biosimilars, highly similar versions of biologic agents, can offer patients equivalent efficacy at reduced costs, which could help expand medication access to more patients. Market uptake and adoption of biosimilars in the United States have been relatively slow, however. This summary aims to explore the challenges and opportunities in healthcare systemwide adoption of biosimilars based on a roundtable discussion including multistakeholder healthcare providers. OBJECTIVES: To identify barriers that contribute to slow market uptake and adoption of biosimilars in the United States and suggest strategies to mitigate such barriers. DISCUSSION: The article systematically examines factors affecting biosimilar adoption and offers insights into potential solutions and system-based strategies to facilitate the adoption and implementation of biosimilar agents in healthcare systems. Misinformation and knowledge gaps among providers and patients continue to hinder the adoption of biosimilars. External barriers related to payers' incentives, patent litigation, and Medicare policy were also identified as obstacles to the adoption of biosimilars. Strategies can be designed and implemented to overcome many of these barriers and realize the economic and societal benefits of biosimilar drugs. CONCLUSION: Overcoming key barriers to biosimilar adoption may be possible by implementing actionable system-level strategies that enable the dissemination of accurate and timely information to key stakeholders and improve organizational readiness for institutions considering biosimilar implementation. The resulting benefits would help to achieve the goals of reducing cost and thereby improving patient access while simultaneously reducing the historical barriers to broad biosimilar adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]