On May 9th, GaBI Journal published a whitepaper titled “Canadian prescribers’ attitudes and perceptions about ophthalmic biosimilars”, based on the recent survey of 41 Canadian ophthalmologists by ASBM and the International Federation on Ageing (IFA). The paper is authored by IFA Secretary-General Jane Barratt and ASBM Executive Director Michael Reilly.
The survey revealed that 81% were not comfortable with a third party such as a government switching a patient’s medicine for non-medical reasons such as cost, as would occur under a recently-announced Ontario plan. Ninety percent of respondents said that having sole authority, with the patient, to decide which biologic medicine to use is very important or critical. And 91% considered the ability to prevent a forced switch by a public or private payer very important or critical.
Read the whitepaper here.