On May 5th, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published a review of numerous surveys and studies examining physician attitudes toward biosimilars, entitled “Physicians’ perceptions of the uptake of biosimilars: a systematic review” Of 331 unique studies examined, only 23 met the quality assessment of two independent researchers for inclusion. Among these were several physician surveys conducted by ASBM. Most of the selected studies were conducted in Europe and commonly used short surveys. Key findings included:
- Physicians’ familiarity with biosimilars varied: 49%–76% were familiar with biosimilars while 2%–25% did not know what biosimilars were, the percentages varying from study to study. Their measured knowledge was generally more limited compared with their self-assessed knowledge.
- Physicians’ perceptions of biosimilars also varied: 54%–94% were confident prescribing biosimilars, while 65%–67% had concerns regarding these medicines.
- Physicians seemed to prefer originator products to biosimilars for stable patients and prescribed biosimilars mainly for biologic-naive patients.
- They considered cost savings and the lower price compared with the originator biologic medicine as the main advantages of biosimilars
- Their doubts about biosimilars were often related to safety, efficacy and immunogenicity.
- 64%–95% of physicians had negative perceptions of pharmacist-led substitution of biologic medicines.
Read the full study review and analysis here.
