Patient Selection for Biosimilars

EP: 1.Overview of Biosimilars for Treating Retinal Diseases

EP: 2.Visual and Anatomic Improvement with a Ranibizumab Biosimilar

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EP: 3.Patient Selection for Biosimilars

Rishi P. Singh, MD: So there's some specific considerations when you have patient populations who may benefit from biosimilar. First and foremost, it may be the patient who cannot afford commercial drug or has a step plan from an insurance policy standpoint that requires biosimilars as a plan for their treatment over time. The second is that patients who have who are recalculation to disease and have to have long term disease states, they might benefit from biosimilar by reducing their overall cost of care as a result of going to that route. What is the most some of the considerations for switching patients from a reference biologic to a biosimilar? Realistically, the biggest consideration of switching patients is whether their disease progresses or the visual acuity gets worse or they develop intraocular inflammation. For that matter, I think that it's very important for people to maintain a good handle on their patients and determine when there's time to properly switch the patient based upon their treatment response. A patient has robust treatment responses and is good overall from a visual acuity standpoint is not a candidate for the biosimilar drugs at this given time. Biosimilars represent a lot of promise in retinal diseases. It has the opportunity to reduce the health care costs, increase the amount of distribution or availability of drug for patients, and really transform eye care as akin to what was done almost 25 years ago to the date with anti-VEGF therapy for these conditions.

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