Health plans and insurers are not yet turning to biosimilar infliximab as a preferred therapy, according to Gillian Woollett, DPhil, MA, of Avalere. Her new report surveyed publicly available policy about health plans across the nation. The principal finding was that step therapy was commonly used to encourage use of the originator product. In fact, … Continue reading Plans Use Step Therapy to Encourage Utilization of Remicade Over Biosimilars →
Product Profile:Infliximab-axxq (Avasola) Drug Category: Anti-TNF/Autoimmune Target Indications: Crohn's disease (adult and pediatric), ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis Will be manufactured and marketed by Amgen Biosimilar Drug Profile: Avasola was the fourth FDA-approved biosimilar version of infliximab (reference product, Remicade®, which is manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceuticals). It is the third infliximab biosimilar …
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Product Profile:Infliximab-dyyb (Inflectra) Drug Category: Anti-TNF/Autoimmune Target Indications: Crohn's disease (adult and pediatric), ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis Manufactured by Celltrion Health; Marketed by Pfizer Biosimilar Drug Profile: Inflectra was the first FDA-approved biosimilar version of infliximab (reference product, Remicade®) manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Originally designated CT-P13, Celltrion submitted a biologic license …
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Product Profile:Infliximab-abda (Renflexis) Drug Category: Anti-TNF/Autoimmune Target Indications: Crohn's disease (adult and pediatric), ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis Manufactured by Samsung Bioepis; Marketed by Merck Summary: Renflexis (initially designated SB2) is a biosimilar version of infliximab (reference product, Remicade, Jannsen) manufactured by Samsung Bioepis/Merck. It is marketed in the US by Merck. …
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A research letter that appeared in JAMA in May has been receiving attention in biosimilar and payer circles. The attention may be a bit outsized compared with the importance of the authors’ findings, but they do support an important point: Biosimilars cannot succeed without payer coverage. The good news is that payers do cover biosimilars … Continue reading Health Plans Still Utilize Fail-First Policies for Some Biosimilars →
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has decided drugs covered under Medicare part B may be subject to step therapy, if so desired by Medicare Advantage plans. UnitedHealthcare has become the first to publicly implement step therapy policies for these drugs. However, biosimilar step therapy is not the typical utilization management tool that … Continue reading Biosimilar Step Therapy for Medicare Part B: Does This Make Sense? →
