Biosimilar medicines - Review

Abstract

Introduction: By definition, biosimilars are similar to a biological reference that has already received marketing authorization for biologic drugs.The purpose of biosimilars is reducing costs, thus increasing access to this treatment, however, the concerns of health professionals and users refer to the fact that to reduce costs will not neglecting the quality, effectiveness and especially security.

Objective: The aim of this study is then to assess the degree of similarity between the biosimilar and its reference biopharmaceuticals, trying to understand the production process, requirements necessary for approval, and its impact on the quality, safety, efficacy and costs.

Methods: For the systematic review without meta-analysis, we researched articles to the b-on, Pubmed and Medscape to 2005-2014, and selected 23 articles that contributed to the verification of the objectives of this study.

Results: Several studies indicate that overall the biosimilar and biological reference showed no significant differences except those inherent to the production process, being the first susceptible to comparability tests demonstrating the similarity in terms of clinical efficacy and safety.

Conclusion: Biosimilars will be increasingly present in the future as promising therapeutic arsenal and targeted therapy, however, issues related to immunogenicity, interchangeability, automatic substitution and extrapolation of indications should continue to be studied and debated.

Keywords: Biosimilars; biologics; efficacy; extrapolation; immunogenicity; interchangeability; safety.