{"title":"European prescribers’ attitudes and beliefs on biologicals prescribing and\u0000 automatic substitution","authors":"M. Feldman, M. Reilly","doi":"10.5639/gabij.2020.0903.020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5639/gabij.2020.0903.020","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: The European Union (EU) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have\u0000 led the development of a regulatory framework for biosimilars since 2004. By end of\u0000 December 2019, 64 biosimilars of 15 originator biological medicines have a marketing\u0000 authorization in Europe. Now, for the second time, the Alliance for Safe Biologic\u0000 Medicines (ASBM) asked European prescribers for their views on the prescribing, adverse\u0000 drug reaction reporting, automatic substitution and switching of biologicals and\u0000 biosimilars. Methods: In March 2019, the ASBM surveyed 579 prescribers in France,\u0000 Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Prescribers were asked for their views on\u0000 authority over prescribing and dispensing of biologicals/biosimilars, reporting\u0000 biological/biosimilar use and adverse drug reactions (ADR) and switching. There were\u0000 also questions related to their familiarity with, knowledge of, attitudes to, and\u0000 beliefs in, biosimilars. Results: Since the previous European prescriber study conducted\u0000 in 2013, the percentage of respondents considering themselves highly familiar with\u0000 biosimilar medicines has increased from 76% to 90%. Four out of five prescribers said\u0000 they are legally required to report ADR that are brought to their attention and they\u0000 file detailed ADR reports taking 10‒20 minutes. Four out of five prescribers feel very\u0000 strongly about having control over what is prescribed and dispensed to their patients.\u0000 While highly comfortable prescribing biosimilars to naïve patients, physician comfort\u0000 level decreased when switching a stable patient to a biosimilar. Comfort level decreased\u0000 further when prescribers were asked about switching a patient to a biosimilar for\u0000 non-medical reasons, e.g. cost, and further still if the switch is initiated by a third\u0000 party. Conclusion: European physicians have increased their familiarity with biosimilars\u0000 since the 2013 survey. Physicians increasingly believe they should always have control\u0000 of treatment decisions including the decision to switch to a biosimilar. It was also\u0000 highlighted that governments should make multiple therapeutic options available through\u0000 tenders.","PeriodicalId":43994,"journal":{"name":"GaBI Journal-Generics and Biosimilars Initiative Journal","volume":"13 1","pages":"116-124"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79337357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}