Knowledge, behaviors and practices of community and hospital pharmacists towards biosimilar medicines: Results of a French web-based survey

Abstract

This study's aims were: 1) to extract a comprehensive overview of the knowledge, experience and opinions of both community pharmacists and hospital pharmacists regarding biosimilar medicines in France; and 2) to identify the perceived problems and solutions to promoting their prescription. A 2015 web-based survey was conducted by the Observatoire des Médicaments, des Dispositifs Médicaux et de l'Innovation Thérapeutique of Alsace. A total of 802 pharmacists responded to the survey. Many (536, 66.8%, [95% confidence interval (CI) 63.6-70.1]) indicated that they were not familiar with biosimilars. Half of community pharmacists (95% CI 42.7-57.3) stated that they were not at all informed about biosimilar drugs, compared with 15.7% (95% CI 12.9-18.6) of hospital pharmacists. Almost all respondents (781, 97.4%, [95% CI 96.3-98.5]) had at least one pending question on biosimilars. Most of the questions were related to the manufacturing process, safety, substitution rules and the international non-proprietary name prescription. At the time of the study, 467 pharmacists (58.2%, [95% CI 54.8-61.6]) had already validated a prescription for a biosimilar drug, mainly for filgrastim. These latter were more comfortable in explaining the benefit of biosimilar medicines to the patient. Pharmacists were rather favorable to biosimilar drugs, and about 9 of 10 quoted healthcare cost savings as incentives to their prescription. However, many did not agree with allowing biosimilar substitution. "Patients' wishes to be treated with the originator" and "indication extrapolation" were the two main constraints identified. The survey highlighted the need to provide French pharmacists with accurate and comprehensive information regarding biosimilar medicines.

Knowledge of Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting and the Pharmacovigilance of Biological Medicines: A Survey of Healthcare Professionals in Ireland

“…Familiarity with the term biosimilar differed among HCP groups (Table 4 ). For instance, fewer community pharmacists (79.9%) were familiar with the term ‘biosimilar medicine’ than hospital pharmacists (95.4%), corroborating findings from a 2015 survey carried out in France, where a higher proportion of community pharmacists responded that they were not at all informed about biosimilars compared with hospital pharmacists [ 44 ]. A survey of HCPs conducted in Ireland the year before this current study (2016) found similar proportions of GPs and community pharmacists claimed they were familiar with the term biosimilar.…”

Policies for biosimilar uptake in Europe: An overview

“…Although healthcare professionals and patients appreciate that the pharmaceutical budget is finite and that biosimilars can help to sustain healthcare, their knowledge and experience with biosimilars tends to be limited [ 37 – 39 ]. In response to this, the European Commission has issued Q&A documents about biosimilars targeting healthcare professionals and patients [ 33 , 40 , 41 ], and also individual countries have started initiatives to educate stakeholders and help combat misconceptions and misinformation [ 42 ].…”

Perspectives of Hospital Pharmacists Towards Biosimilar Medicines: A Survey of Polish Pharmacy Practice in General Hospitals

“…The usage of biosimilars may allow facilities to save costs; in some countries and under certain circumstances biosimilars can be much cheaper than reference medicines and more patients could receive this modern therapy [ 23 – 25 ]. Community and hospital pharmacists (92%) from France indicated “Health care costs savings” as their motivation to promote the prescribing of biosimilars [ 26 ]. These arguments make biosimilar medicines very attractive, especially for Eastern European countries with limited healthcare budgets [ 27 ].…”