Healthcare professionals’ perceptions and perspectives on biosimilar medicines and the barriers and facilitators to their prescribing in UK: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate UK healthcare professionals’ perceptions and perspectives towards biosimilar infliximab, etanercept and insulin glargine and the potential barriers and facilitators to their prescribing. DESIGN: A cross-sectional qualitative study design was used. SETTING: Five hospitals within the West Midlands area in UK. INTERVENTIONS: 30 min face-to-face, semistructured interviews of healthcare professionals. PARTICIPANTS: 22 healthcare professionals (consultants, nurses and pharmacists) participated in the semistructured interviews. OUTCOMES: Participants’ opinion and attitudes about biosimilars and the barriers and facilitators to the prescribing of infliximab, etanercept and insulin glargine biosimilars in gastroenterology, rheumatology and diabetology specialties. RESULTS: This study showed that UK healthcare professionals had good knowledge of biosimilars and were content to initiate them. Healthcare professionals disagreed with biosimilar auto-substitution at pharmacy level and multiple switching. Subtle differences among healthcare professionals were identified in the acceptance of switching stable patients, indication extrapolation and cost savings sharing. CONCLUSION: Safety and efficacy concerns, patients’ opinion and how cost savings were shared were the identified barriers to considering prescribing biosimilars. Real-life data and financial incentives were the suggested facilitators to increase biosimilar utilisation.