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Modern Healthcare

Fate of cost-saving biosimilar drugs may hinge on naming policy

Fate of cost-saving biosimilar drugs may hinge on naming policy

  • julio 04, 2015
  • min read

Modern Healthcare

Fate of cost-saving biosimilar drugs may hinge on naming policy

Andy Pasternak, a partner with Bain & Company's Healthcare practice in Chicago, discusses why labels will be particularly important when some biosimilar products eventually receive FDA approval for interchangeability, meaning that pharmacists can switch from a branded biologic to a cheaper biosimilar without physician consent. "In the near term, the first-order obstacles (for the biosimilars industry) are the lack of interchangeability and the prevention of automatic substitution," he says. "Once products overcome those, the naming issue becomes more significant."