Switching from Biologic to Biosimilar Products: Insight from an Integrated Health Care System

Biologics are indicated for the treatment of a wide range of conditions and have transformed care in several therapeutic areas; however, they are expensive for both health care systems and patients. The use of biosimilars, which are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as being “highly similar” to the originator biologic, has the potential to change the health care landscape in the biologic space through considerable cost savings for both payors and patients. With the introduction of biosimilars, organizations are increasingly evaluating how to switch patients from originator biologics to biosimilars. While published studies have evaluated the outcomes of patients switched from originator biologics to biosimilars, there are few publications describing the process health care systems have used to adopt and switch patients to biosimilars. Since 2016, Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO) has undertaken several biosimilar switches starting with the first biosimilar introduced to the market, filgrastim, and has been able to successfully switch 91.8% of patients receiving infliximab, 99.8% receiving rituximab, and 100% receiving filgrastim, trastuzumab, and bevacizumab originator biologics to their respective biosimilars. In an effort to support other health care systems and provide a framework for implementing biosimilar switches, the purpose of this paper is to describe the biosimilar switch model and share learnings from the KPCO experience.