By Craig Cowman, executive vice president, Biopharma Solutions and Strategic Sourcing
2025 signifies a 10-year landmark in healthcare when the first commercially available biosimilar was made available in the U.S. and launched a brand-new industry in pharmaceuticals. A decade later, 70 new biosimilars have been approved. To date, biosimilars have delivered nearly three billion days of therapy without any clinically meaningful differences from the reference biologic drugs, according to the 2024 U.S. Generic & Biosimilar Medicines Savings Report published by the Association for Accessible Medicines. Biosimilars are proven to be safe and effective and are giving hope to millions of patients with a variety of conditions who have few, if any, other treatment options.
At Cardinal Health, our Biopharma Solutions team works with manufacturers to provide support in navigating biosimilars awareness, education, and adoption. Ultimately, we aim to create a better understanding of how biosimilars can help increase cost-effective, high quality-care. Importantly, biosimilars have resulted in more than $36 billion in savings for the US healthcare system since their inception.
In our latest report, “10 years of biosimilars,” we reflect on the positive impact these important medications have brought to patients and the healthcare ecosystem – and their hope for the future of biosimilars.
Throughout this report, you will learn how biosimilars are impacting healthcare providers, payers, and, most importantly, patients. Based on the surveys we conducted and analyzed, we know that stakeholders want to do their part to create value and cost savings for the entire system; savings that can be used to fund future innovations. Each healthcare ecosystem stakeholder has encountered challenges in the last decade. Many of the challenges to adoption are being overcome and the last 10 years of experience has brought learnings which are making the biosimilar landscape more sustainable and successful.
The first biosimilar approved by the FDA was used to prevent infections in cancer patients on chemotherapy. Currently, biosimilars are used to treat a vast array of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, GI conditions and dermatologic conditions. Biosimilars entered the mainstream in 2024 with the approvals of biosimilar products in the bone health and retina space. This year, different versions of biosimilars are set to enter the U.S. market for some of the most common and persistent conditions in medicine, including asthma, diabetes and the mediation of certain food allergies.
There is momentum and the goal for biosimilars is unchanged as we anticipate the future. Biosimilars aim to bring competition to the healthcare ecosystem by providing options for payors, prescribers and patients, lowering healthcare costs and creating a more sustainable healthcare ecosystem. This competition and optionality will ultimately lead to improved overall affordability, so that patients can access the medicines they need.
You can download the report here.
As EVP of Biopharma Solutions and Strategic Sourcing, Craig Cowman leads the Biopharma and Strategic Sourcing team, which supports pharmaceutical manufacturers through the critical stages of regulatory approval, product launch, and commercialization.