President Biden’s Executive Order to Support Biosimilar Drugs Will Provide Lower Cost Options for Patients

The Biosimilars Forum applauds President Biden's directions to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "to increase support for generic and biosimilar drugs, which provide low-cost options for patients" in his Executive Order Promoting Competition in the American Economy.

"We commend the Biden Administration for supporting biosimilars as a bipartisan solution that harnesses the power of competition to lower health care costs," said Meaghan R. Smith, Executive Director of the Biosimilars Forum. "Biosimilars provide safe and effective lower-cost options for patients with difficult-to-treat diseases such as cancer or rheumatoid arthritis, and save taxpayers money by lowering the government's health care bill."

Just as generic drugs provide lower-cost options for patients with small-molecule drug prescriptions, biosimilars provide lower-cost options for patients with more expensive biologic drug prescriptions. The executive order also contains critical provisions encouraging the FDA and FTC to prohibit certain anticompetitive practices in a way that makes the biosimilars market more robust.

In addition to providing lower-cost options for patients that could save $100 billion over the next five years, new data recently released by the Biosimilars Forum shows that biosimilars drive down the overall cost of biologic drugs by up to 56% due to the market forces of increased competition.

But unlike generic drugs available to 90% of patients, biosimilars are only available to 20% of patients who need them. This must change if patients are to realize the full savings potential of biosimilars, and government plays a critical role in encouraging the adoption of lower-cost biosimilars.

"We are pleased the Biden Administration has taken another concrete step to honor the president's campaign commitment to lower the cost of prescription drugs for patients," said Smith.  "The Biosimilars Forum will continue to engage lawmakers to lock in biosimilars savings by promoting increased add-on payments for biosimilars to ASP+8, eliminating biosimilar copays for Medicare Part B enrollees, and other bipartisan policies that will help more patients receive the life-saving prescription drugs they need."