Interview with Jon Martin, US Commercial Lead, Biosimilars and Established Brands at Organon
Organon may not be as familiar as other biologics companies: what are your organization’s mission and key businesses?
Organon is an independent global health care company that has built a diverse portfolio of over 70 medicines and products in women’s health, biosimilars, and established medicines across a range of therapeutic areas with a mission to address the needs of patients, including accessibility and affordability. As for biosimilars, we believe in their tremendous potential to improve access and affordability for patients and health systems alike. As a company in the biosimilar space, we are committed to making more biosimilars available now and in the future.
What makes the biosimilar market different than traditional biologics business?
Biosimilars are FDA-approved and must demonstrate no clinically meaningful differences in safety, purity or potency compared to their reference biologics. The principal objective of biosimilars is to improve affordability of these complex molecule through market competition.
However, the market is complex and motivations can vary by stakeholder. Health systems with an alignment of incentives, system goals for cost reductions, and willingness to invest in patient and provider education have been key attributes to improving the uptake of biosimilars leading to greater system adoption and the associated savings.
What are the questions or challenges among customers and patients as to the use of biosimilars?
We have seen acceptance of biosimilars improve over the last eight years with the launch of our first biosimilar. As new biosimilars enter therapeutic areas, there are customers and patients that naturally have questions about how they compare to reference biologics, especially around safety and effectiveness. These are important conversations, and increased education and awareness can play a key role in building confidence and encouraging adoption.
There is a strong potential for biosimilars to help improve access and ease the cost burden associated with biologic treatments, particularly for chronic conditions that require lifelong management that historically may come with a high price tag. When biosimilars are covered on formularies and supported by prescribing physicians, they have the potential to deliver meaningful savings to both patients and the health care system.
While the landscape includes complex cost structures and evolving perceptions, these are opportunities to further engage stakeholders to support informed decision-making and ultimately help more patients benefit from high-quality, more affordable biologic treatment options.
How can manufacturers and hospital owned SPs work together to overcome those challenges?
Biosimilars companies have a responsibility to educate about the role of biosimilars in not only cost-savings, but treatment goals and overall patient experience. Biosimilar companies also need to adapt to the unique needs of each health care system, including hospital owned specialty pharmacies. At Organon, we are committed to high-quality standards to bring biosimilar medicines to market. Biosimilar companies can help their stakeholders by providing tailored support programs designed to help customers navigate the biosimilar transition process at their institution or practice. At Organon, we are committed to supporting the patient journey and successful partnerships, including hospital owned specialty pharmacies that make this journey with biosimilars possible. Specialty pharmacies who excel at utilizing biosimilars have adopted processes that support patients through their journey, sometimes with assistance from manufacturer programs and other times adapting their own programs.
Are there other ways Hospital owned specialty pharmacies can contribute to growth of biosimilars and realize those cost savings?
Hospital owned specialty pharmacies are part of the care team and play a key role in linking clinical goals to patient needs. They help ensure treatment continuity and support operational efforts to adopt cost-effective biosimilars. Patient-level support provided by specialty pharmacies enhance biosimilar adoption and maximize value both for patients and the health care system.
The promise of meaningful cost savings through biosimilar adoption is real, particularly in areas of high-cost, chronic disease management. From 2021 to 2025, biosimilars are estimated to save $38.4 billion to the health care system. To realize these benefits, health systems and patients need strong leadership from their specialty pharmacies and the pharmacist plays a critical role in helping achieve these types of savings.