AAM Biosimilars Council applauds Biden for signing biosimilar law
The Association for Accessible Medicines' Biosimilars Council applauded President Biden’s signing on Monday of the Advancing Education on Biosimilars Act of 2021.
The Act authorizes the Food and Drug Administration to educate consumers and healthcare providers on the benefits of biosimilar medications.
“Education is a crucial step toward more widespread adoption of safe, effective and more-affordable biosimilar therapies, said Christine Simmon, executive director of the Biosimilars Council. "There is much work to be done in the United States to increase usage of biosimilars, stimulate competition and reduce prices for patients, and we look forward to working with our counterparts at the Food and Drug Administration to inform providers and patients about the benefits that biosimilars bring to the market.”
AAM also praised the introduction of "The Ensuring Access to Lower-Cost Medicines for Seniors Act" (HR 2846) stating that it could save America’s seniors with Medicare Part D coverage more than $4 billion a year by lowering their out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs and restoring the original intent of the Medicare Part D program.
Dan Leonard, AAM president and CEO wrote to Congressman David McKinley and Congresswoman Kuster, thanking them for their leadership in introducing The Ensuring Access to Lower-Cost Medicines for Seniors Act.
Leonard stated, "More than 46 million seniors are currently enrolled in Medicare Part D for their prescription drug coverage. In recent years, however, access to lower-cost generic and biosimilar medicines has been increasingly out of reach. Seniors are paying more out of pocket for the same medicines. In some cases, seniors are denied access altogether. This is a result of perverse incentives in Medicare that encourage the use of high-cost brand-name biologics and other specialty medicines."
Leonard added that the Ensuring Access to Lower-Cost Medicines for Seniors Act would dramatically reduce the out-of pocket costs for seniors by ensuring access to newly approved generics and biosimilars, placing generics on generic drug cost-sharing tiers and creating a new specialty tier for biosimilars and specialty generics.