Dr. Savin on the Challenges of Developing Biosimilar Clinical Trials

Michael A. Savin, MD, assistant professor of medicine, School of Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, discusses the challenges that come with trying to develop a clinical trial for biosimilars.

Mainly, clinical trials in general are very expensive to run. There are a number of cooperative groups that can provide assistance, but they have limited resources. This means that researches become reliant on drug manufacturers to help fund the trials, which leads to some setbacks. Savin says that these companies might not be willing to support a trial that could devalue one of their products—particularly biosimilars, which aim to hit the same target at a lower cost.

An important step for oncologists to take would be to find more effective ways of funding trials, Savin says.