NMIC Bulletin Vol. 27 No. 3 Questions and Answers on Biosimilars
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13 July, 2021
Questions and Answers on Biosimilars
Biosimilars are biological medicines that are highly similar in all essential aspects to an already approved (reference) biological medicine and have gone through a robust authorisation process to demonstrate therapeutic equivalence
Under the supervision of a physician, biosimilars can be used interchangeably with the reference medicine or with other biosimilars of that reference medicine
All biological medicines must be prescribed by brand name rather than by International Nonproprietary Name (INN) for traceability and to avoid inadvertent substitution
There are an increasing number of patients being prescribed a biosimilar e.g. the best-value biological medicines for adalimumab and etanercept. This trend is likely to continue in the coming years.
