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Perspectives of Hospital Pharmacists Towards Biosimilar Medicines: A Survey of Polish Pharmacy Practice in General Hospitals
INTRODUCTION: There has been a significant increase in the volume of biosimilar medicines recently due to the expiries of patent protections of biologic medicines. Biosimilars are considered new medicines, and their usage in therapy is often associated with uncertainty from the perspectives of physi...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6439166/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30830647 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40259-019-00341-w |
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author | Pawłowska, Iga Pawłowski, Leszek Krzyżaniak, Natalia Kocić, Ivan |
author_facet | Pawłowska, Iga Pawłowski, Leszek Krzyżaniak, Natalia Kocić, Ivan |
author_sort | Pawłowska, Iga |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: There has been a significant increase in the volume of biosimilar medicines recently due to the expiries of patent protections of biologic medicines. Biosimilars are considered new medicines, and their usage in therapy is often associated with uncertainty from the perspectives of physicians, pharmacists and patients. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to identify hospital pharmacist opinions towards these new medicines and investigate their usage in practice. METHODS: A paper-based, self-administered questionnaire was distributed to Polish hospital pharmacists. RESULTS: Biosimilars were used in 77% of surveyed hospitals, whereas originator biologics were utilised within 90% of settings. The former medicines were found to consist of less than one-third of the entire course of biological pharmacotherapy used within Polish hospitals. A total of 88% of hospital pharmacists were concerned that the new drugs were not identical with the biologic versions, 48% with their immunogenicity and 44% with other pharmacokinetic properties. The majority of respondents (87%) stated that the most important advantage of biosimilars related to decreased costs. Furthermore, according to participants, pharmacist-led substitution is not appropriate. CONCLUSION: Due to the numerous concerns relating to the usage of biosimilars, their introduction into patient therapy requires special attention from healthcare providers. While pharmacists involved in the distribution of biosimilars are conscious of their impact in decreasing costs of therapy, they do not feel comfortable in recommending their substitution without a physician’s permission. There is a need for more precise legal regulations relating to biosimilars, improved communication between physicians and pharmacists, as well as educational initiatives to improve the safe and effective usage of biosimilars. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6439166 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-64391662019-04-15 Perspectives of Hospital Pharmacists Towards Biosimilar Medicines: A Survey of Polish Pharmacy Practice in General Hospitals Pawłowska, Iga Pawłowski, Leszek Krzyżaniak, Natalia Kocić, Ivan BioDrugs Original Research Article INTRODUCTION: There has been a significant increase in the volume of biosimilar medicines recently due to the expiries of patent protections of biologic medicines. Biosimilars are considered new medicines, and their usage in therapy is often associated with uncertainty from the perspectives of physicians, pharmacists and patients. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to identify hospital pharmacist opinions towards these new medicines and investigate their usage in practice. METHODS: A paper-based, self-administered questionnaire was distributed to Polish hospital pharmacists. RESULTS: Biosimilars were used in 77% of surveyed hospitals, whereas originator biologics were utilised within 90% of settings. The former medicines were found to consist of less than one-third of the entire course of biological pharmacotherapy used within Polish hospitals. A total of 88% of hospital pharmacists were concerned that the new drugs were not identical with the biologic versions, 48% with their immunogenicity and 44% with other pharmacokinetic properties. The majority of respondents (87%) stated that the most important advantage of biosimilars related to decreased costs. Furthermore, according to participants, pharmacist-led substitution is not appropriate. CONCLUSION: Due to the numerous concerns relating to the usage of biosimilars, their introduction into patient therapy requires special attention from healthcare providers. While pharmacists involved in the distribution of biosimilars are conscious of their impact in decreasing costs of therapy, they do not feel comfortable in recommending their substitution without a physician’s permission. There is a need for more precise legal regulations relating to biosimilars, improved communication between physicians and pharmacists, as well as educational initiatives to improve the safe and effective usage of biosimilars. Springer International Publishing 2019-03-04 2019 /pmc/articles/PMC6439166/ /pubmed/30830647 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40259-019-00341-w Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Article Pawłowska, Iga Pawłowski, Leszek Krzyżaniak, Natalia Kocić, Ivan Perspectives of Hospital Pharmacists Towards Biosimilar Medicines: A Survey of Polish Pharmacy Practice in General Hospitals |
title | Perspectives of Hospital Pharmacists Towards Biosimilar Medicines: A Survey of Polish Pharmacy Practice in General Hospitals |
title_full | Perspectives of Hospital Pharmacists Towards Biosimilar Medicines: A Survey of Polish Pharmacy Practice in General Hospitals |
title_fullStr | Perspectives of Hospital Pharmacists Towards Biosimilar Medicines: A Survey of Polish Pharmacy Practice in General Hospitals |
title_full_unstemmed | Perspectives of Hospital Pharmacists Towards Biosimilar Medicines: A Survey of Polish Pharmacy Practice in General Hospitals |
title_short | Perspectives of Hospital Pharmacists Towards Biosimilar Medicines: A Survey of Polish Pharmacy Practice in General Hospitals |
title_sort | perspectives of hospital pharmacists towards biosimilar medicines: a survey of polish pharmacy practice in general hospitals |
topic | Original Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6439166/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30830647 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40259-019-00341-w |
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