In this video, patient advocate Kathleen Arntsen, President and CEO of the Lupus and Allied Diseases Association (LADA) and an autoimmune patient herself, discusses the power of advocacy and her concerns with Non-Medical Switching (NMS).
NMS is the switching of a patient from one treatment to another, typically by a third party such as a Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) or insurance company, for reasons other than a patient’s health and safety.
Unlike generic versions of chemical drugs, biosimilars are not identical to their reference products, and these differences can produce unexpected effects in patients, including unwanted and harmful immune responses. In the case of biologic treatments such as those used to treat autoimmune disorders, switching a patient (who may have worked for years to find a treatment that effectively manages his or her condition) can cause the patient to lose that hard-won stability.