Dr. Pegram on Future Impact of Biosimilars in Oncology

Mark D. Pegram, MD, Susy Yuan-Huey Hung Professor, co-director of the Stanford’s Molecular Therapeutics Program and director of the Breast Cancer Oncology Program, at Stanford Women’s Cancer Center, discusses the future impact of biosimilars in the oncologyspace.

Biosimilar drug development is a fast-paced and interesting field, Pegram says. The opportunity for biosimilars has become more prominent due to patent expirations that are expected in the next couple of years for several biologic oncology products. The expiration of these patents paves the way for the development of new biosimilar agents for commercial use.

Historically, non-oncology biosimilar products tend to be more affordable than generics; consequentially, this opens the door to new markets on a global scale—particularly in some countries where name brand products are virtually unavailable because of their unsustainable cost, he explains.

In each case of non-oncologics or supportive oncology care products, when biosimilars became available, the size of the global market expanded significantly. Overall, biosimilars would be cost-saving even in the insured United States population, Pegram adds. Therefore, the money that used to be spent by pharmaceutical companies to support profit margins can now be delegated to further research and development efforts.