2SPD-008 Impact of French experiment for incentivising etanercept biosimilar use after 10 months

Background and importance In order to ensure the sustainability of the French healthcare system, the government launched two incentives to increase biosimilar use in August 2018, within the framework of the social security funding law. The first redirected 20% of the price difference between the reference product and its biosimilar to the hospital, for every biosimilar prescription from the hospital, and provided it in retail pharmacies. The second (called article 51) was an experiment where 40 hospitals were selected after a call for a proposal. The clinical units of these 40 hospitals received 30% of the price difference between the reference product and its biosimilar for every biosimilar prescription from the hospital. Aim and objectives The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of both incentives 10 months after implementation in October 2018. Material and methods IQVIA Xponent data were used to evaluate public hospital prescriptions of etanercept. These are based on 14 000 retail pharmacy panels (60% of the French retail pharmacies) and allows observation of the number of boxes delivered in retail pharmacies linked to the initial hospital prescription. Data from the 40 hospitals selected in the experiment were compared with hospitals not in the experiment. We assessed savings that could be made if the experiment was extended to every hospital after 10 months Results In July 2019, the average use of etanercept biosimilar reached 44.2% (+19.5 points compared with October 2018) in the 40 hospitals selected in the experiment whereas it increased by 10.5 points in the other hospitals. After 10 months of the experiment, there was a difference of 12.3 points between the groups. The government expected to reach a difference of 15 points to prove the efficacy of this measure after 3 years. The 40 selected hospitals represent about 46% of potential etanercept prescriptions. If all hospitals reach 44.2% biosimilar use, the savings could be doubled, from 650k€ to 1.4M€. Conclusion and relevance The first results of this experiment show that incentives to prescribe etanercept biosimilars seem to have an impact on biosimilar use in France. References and/or acknowledgements Acknowledgements to Iqvia and Biogen France. Conflict of interest Corporate sponsored research or other substantive relationships: Iqvia and Biogen France.