Objective: To assess the economic impact of introducing biosimilars of bevacizumab for the management of cancer patients receiving systemic bevacizumab in the National Health System (SNHS) of Spain.
Methods: A 3-year budget impact analysis model was adapted to estimate the cost of introducing biosimilars of bevacizumab in the SNHS for the adult population who were candidates to receive treatment with bevacizumab. Values for the estimation of the population were obtained from the literature and were validated by an expert panel. In this analysis only pharmaceutical costs (€, year 2021) obtained from official databases were considered. A sensitivity analysis was performed to examine the robustness of the model.
Results: The introduction of bevacizumab biosimilars would generate an annual cost saving of €11 558 268 (-5.1%) for the first year with a penetration share of biosimilars from 30.0%, €29 126 373 (-8.5%) for the second year with a share of 50.0% and €52 361 778 (-13.6%) for the third year with a share of 80.0%. The total pharmaceutical costs of the scenario without biosimilars are €227 033 352 for the first year, €342 663 209 for the second year and €385 013 076 for the third year. In contrast, the pharmaceutical costs of the scenario with bevacizumab biosimilars are €215 475 084, €313 536 836 and €332 651 297 for years 1, 2 and 3, respectively.
Conclusions: The introduction of biosimilars in the Spanish Health System would generate saving costs in the pharmacological budget to boost biological drugs from the first year.
Keywords: antineoplastic agents; economics; health care economics and organizations; medical oncology; pharmaceutical; public health.
© European Association of Hospital Pharmacists 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. Published by BMJ.