The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) recently announced that in its last fiscal year, it had saved $419 million in switching to biosimilar and generic versions of ten expensive drugs. These savings exceeded the $324 million in savings the NHS had forecasted. According to the announcement, most of the savings came from switching to biosimilars:
-
infliximab ($128 million)
-
imatinib ($85 million)
-
etanercept ($78 million)
-
rituximab ($65 million)
The NHS further noted that the drug it spends the most money on is adalimumab, which the NHS expects to be available as a biosimilar after October 2018. The NHS indicated that it expects to have even more savings this year from switching to biosimilars and generics.
