Biosimilars Are a Growing Part of Healthcare

Healthcare and pharmaceuticals go hand in hand. The treatment for any number of conditions are dependent on medication, vaccines or other treatments developed. Biosimilars are a newer treatment option that works to bring more affordable options to people for their treatments. 

Biosimilars are close to what's known as a biologic. Biologics are often used to produce vaccines, components of blood, body tissue or various proteins of the body. Biologics are called such because they often are produced through living organisms or related to them. Many people who suffer from autoimmune diseases, kidney diseases, some cancers and Crohn’s disease are treated with the use of biologics. 

What is a Biologic? 

When pharmaceutical companies develop a new drug for use, it’s usually what’s known as a “small molecule” compound. It’s chemically created and has a very specific compound that is very easily replicated. Biologics are what’s known as a “large molecule” compound. They are far more complex than simple drugs and medications and are more difficult to create. 

Biologics usually start with some kind of living tissue or organism. These can be from plants, animals, humans, yeast or other living material. The biologic is developed and grown from these living tissues. The results are very complex that can feature long chains of molecules which are specifically created during the process. Biologics are very expensive as medications. They can cost people thousands of dollars each year. This is partly due to the increased difficulty in the development and production 

What is a Biosimilar? 

An easy way to understand a biosimilar is to consider it as equivalent to a generic drug. Generic drugs are replications of drugs using the same chemical compounds. After a specific period of time, the patent on a drug ends and other companies can create them without their brand name. Biosimilars are somewhat equivalent to this process.

The main difference is that between a generic drug and biosimilars is that generic drugs are exact replications. Biosimilars are unable to be replicated in such a manner due to the process in which biologics are created in the first place. The closest that can be done is to create a biologic that functions the same in all meaningful ways and is essentially the same in potency, purity and safety. Biosimilars need to be demonstrated to meet these criteria to be accepted. Biosimilars are still a new field and the patents for many biologics are only now ending, so there’s still a long 

What’s the Benefit to Using Biosimilars? 

There’s one huge benefit to using a biosimilar, and that’s the price. As mentioned earlier, using a biologic can cost several thousands of dollars per year. By using a biosimilar, prices will come down and people will get more affordable treatment. It may seem unimportant when people are using health insurance, but higher health insurance costs affect everyone. There are some studies that have been done that suggest that use of biosimilars can save the US health system tens of billions of dollars over the next decade. That’s a significant amount of money. 

Another benefit is quite simply that more people may be able to get treatment for conditions that lack a treatment plan now. It’s likely that the continued development of biosimilars will spur further research and competition among companies looking to make money in the biologic and biosimilar market. Competition is almost always good for development of new products!