Andre Harvin, PharmD, MS, MBA, Cone Health Cancer Center, discusses controlling costs in the business of oncology through biosimilar use.

Transcript:

So I'm really excited to be here to give my presentation about biologics, robots, and advocacy. And so, when I was approached about this topic, one, I was like, "You sure you want me as the keynote address?" But then I realized that there are so many things that as a pharmacist we can address here, especially as it relates to the business of oncology, which really a burning topic about how we control cost, how we better engage patients, and how we ensure that we are marching in the right direction and that we are focusing on what's critical for oncology care for the next several years.

So let's start off by talking about the biologic aspect of it. And that's really biosimilars. That's a huge aspect going on right now in oncology care. And sometimes there was questions about it. Very early on when we set out for our biosimilar strategy, which was at the end of 2019, there were a lot of questions about whether or not biosimilars would really take off.

I've told people before that I read maybe a dozen articles from Europe and the Asian markets that talked about just how significant biosimilars had been and that they were working exceptionally well. And then you read one article in the US that said, "No, I don't think biosimilars are going to be a thing. I think it's not going to work." And it's so funny how 12 things can be negated by one negative thing.

But we still set out for that strategy. There was something in the pit of my stomach that said, "No, I think this is going to be a real thing. Here in America, we are really focused on controlling the costs of care. It's something that continues to be rampant, and I think there's an opportunity here." And luckily, I found other peers within my network that were just having the same opinion. It's like, "I get it, there's concerns, but biosimilars is going to be a thing."

And so we set off on that strategy. And we laid out our timeline that we were going to educate our clinic, that we were going to do a deeper financial assessment. We were going to get more into the business that is oncology care. And that we were going to start moving patients over to biosimilars. And so, we set out a timeline that lasted about six months. And by the end of that six months, we had converted about 40% of our patients over to biosimilar utilization.

And at that point we were into about mid-2020 and there was this little thing called COVID that started coming out where everyone was a little bit, I think, on edge. And they were looking for things like, "What's going to happen? Are people going to be able to come into the hospital system? Is there going to be a way for us to save costs?"

And again, right there, biosimilars. There was an opportunity for us. And then we started having more and more options for biosimilars at that time as well. And so we just dove right into that strategy. We started thinking about how we could be more strategic, more dynamic in our utilization of biosimilars.

And by the end of 2020, we had saved over $10 million, which is significant, right? You're talking about six medications that are used in oncology. So when you look at things from a pure volume perspective, you're talking about less than 2% of drugs that were administered within our entire medical system resulted in over $10 million in savings. There's nothing else out there that you can get with that. And so why would we not double down on that strategy?

Fast-forward to today, over 90% of our patients are on a biosimilar. The only ones that are not are just because they require the on-body or there's something maybe off-label that they can't utilize for that. We are a nearly 100% biosimilar shop, and we continue to find the benefits of that. Because, one, we're driving down cost, which is fantastic for not only our provider group, our patients, but also the payers as well. They recognize that we are taking the right steps to ensure that we are driving cost savings where appropriate and where we can.

But after that, we start to think about the patients themselves. Depending on the insurance they have or what requirements they have, we're really helping reduce their out-of-pocket responsibilities because these drugs have continued to drive down the price within their pharmaceutical category. One of the most important things with biosimilars is that once they come to market, we almost immediately see an arrest in any price increases within that pharmaceutical class. And what we're seeing now is that curve is actually bending in the opposite direction. So to me, biosimilars is a win-win-win for everyone.

Everyone that's involved is winning with biosimilars. It's a great thing for us. Patients previously that we didn't think were going to qualify to utilize them, these biosimilar programs have their own patient advocates. They have out-of-pocket coverage that they can assist with. They have free drug programs or pharmaceutical assistance. They have everything we need to ensure that they have access to that.