Biosimilars Stand to Cut Costs for Medicare Part D and Beneficiaries, If Uptake Improves

May 05
May 05, 2022

New biologic drugs cost Medicare Part D and its beneficiaries almost $12 billion in 2019, but increased biosimilar uptake could cut spending significantly in coming years, according to a March report from HHS’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Specifically, the OIG report pointed to upcoming launches of Humira (in 2023) and Enbrel (in 2029) biosimilars as potential catalysts for change. The two biologics alone accounted for nearly half of 2019’s Part D spending. Studying 2019 Part D plan formularies, OIG found that biosimilar uptake for four select drug classes was limited due to lack of coverage, and formularies that did cover biosimilars did not encourage their use over the original reference products despite their lower cost. OIG advised CMS to encourage payers to place biosimilars on formulary, which the agency agreed with. As of the second quarter of 2022, most Medicare beneficiaries still have better access to the biologics OIG studied over their biosimilars, with the exception of Teva Pharmaceuticals’ Granix, a biosimilar to Amgen’s Neupogen, and Pfizer’s Retacrit, a biosimilar to Amgen’s Epogen and Johnson & Johnson’s Procrit. Granix holds covered or better status for 51% of Medicare beneficiaries, according to data from MMIT Analytics (MMIT is the parent company of AIS Health). Retacrit, meanwhile, holds 66% covered or better status. Read more
© 2024 MMIT

Carina Belles

Carina has been covering public-sector health care since 2018. As a data reporter for Radar on Medicare Advantage, she creates infographics and data stories on issues impacting Medicare, Medicaid and Part D. She also develops AIS Health Daily, a free daily newsletter that showcases AIS’s strong reporting across our four publications and parent company Norstella’s suite of market access and data solutions. Prior to joining the editorial team, she managed Medicare and Medicaid data for the Directory of Health Plans, AIS’s industry-standard health coverage database. She graduated from Ohio University with a B.S. in Journalism.