Perhaps more education is needed. That is the conclusion from a paper by Giovatto et al. (2024). The authors conducted an online survey of US prescribers and health system specialty pharmacists practicing in the rheumatology, dermatology, and gastroenterology. Among the 31 prescribers and 44 pharmacists who responded to the survey:
Only 16.0% of prescribers and 13.4% of pharmacists reported being “very prepared” to have conversations with patients about biosimilar options. 43% of prescribers indicated they would prescribe a biosimilar to biologic naive patients. However, 13.3% of prescribers would be willing to prescribe a biosimilar to patients successfully established on biologic therapy. Among pharmacists, 68.1% were comfortable recommending a biosimilar substitution to a biologic naive patient, but only 18.1% would recommend a biosimilar substitution to an existing patient successfully established on a biologic therapy. Less than half of prescribers (48.0%) and pharmacists (42.0%) understood regulations of interchangeability and substitution.
The full paper is here.