17 March 2015.
The Generic Medicines Industry Association (GMiA) will today launch the GMiA Guide to Biosimilars during a Parliamentary Friends of Medicine event at Parliament House. The GMiA Guide to Biosimilars aims to provide a concise reference for explaining this emerging class of affordable medicines, presenting the facts in a user-friendly format.
Biological medicines have revolutionised the management of some of the most difficult to treat diseases including cancer, multiple sclerosis and autoimmune diseases. However, biological medicines are very costly to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), which may limit their availability to some patients. Biosimilars are a subclass of biological medicines that offer therapeutically equivalent and more cost effective alternatives to existing, high-cost biological medicines.
“Around the world, biosimilars are now able to offer alternative treatment options to many expensive biological medicines, with the potential for considerable cost savings. The GMiA Guide to Biosimilars can help Australian patients, clinicians, pharmacists, politicians and policy makers understand the important role of biosimilars in improving patient access to new treatments while managing PBS costs.” said GMiA CEO Belinda Wood
The Parliamentary Friends of Medicine group provides a non-partisan forum for MPs to meet and interact with medical experts, patients and representatives of the medicines industry to discuss medical developments and health issues important to constituents.
“GMiA is pleased to launch the Guide to Biosimilars today to the Parliamentary Friends of Medicine. While there remain a number of market access challenges for biosimilars, GMiA members are committed to bringing these affordable medicines to market for the benefit of Australian patients.” said Ms Wood.
A pdf of the GMiA Guide to Biosimilars is available on the GMiA website www.gmia.com.au
