Pharmacoeconomics of Biologic Medicines and Biosimilars

The usage of biological drugs in autoimmune diseases treatment has significantly changed the clinical disease course especially for patients with particularly complicated or poor response to the treatment, demonstrating the ability to inhibit disease progression. Therefore, nowadays, biologics represent an increasing proportion of total pharmaceutical expenses despite differences in standard of routine care and high prices (Reardon, 2020). The articles presented in the Research Topic highlight the broad area of this subject. In this Research Topic, three reviews, a case report, a research report and an original research articles were published.It has been over 20 years since the first clinical trials of anti-TNF alpha therapy (Elliott et al., 2008). Currently available biological drugs for clinical use in rheumatology are adalimumab, golimumab, infliximab, certolizumab, and etanercept. Adalimumab and golimumab are fully human monoclonal antibodies; infliximab is a chimeric monoclonal antibody with a murine variable region; certolizumab is a humanized Fab fragment conjugated with polyethylene glycol, while etanercept is a fusion protein of two TNF2 receptor extracellular domains and the Fc fragment of human immunoglobulin. Since then, anti-TNF therapy has found applications in various autoimmune diseases. Some of these are very rare, such as Behçet's disease (BD). A systematic review of controlled trials of anti-TNF therapy compared with conventional therapy was presented by Zhou et al.The authors investigated the efficacy and safety of anti-TNF therapy and summarized it in relation to the available therapeutic options. According to the authors, anti-TNF therapy reduces the relapses of uveitis in patients with BD in comparison with the traditional immunosuppressant (csDMARDs) therapy. This finding has significant implications for the protection against significant and permanent vision impairment or blindness. However, it has to be taken into consideration, that BD is a heterogeneous disease and presents different subtypes, such as Behçet's uveitis, intestinal BD, neurological-BD, and vascular-BD. Moreover, Zhou et al. found that both IFNα-2α and infliximab therapy (anti-TNF agent) were effective in inducing uveitis remission in patients with BD and that adalimumab and infliximab provided similar types of trends and qualitative conclusions in two studies on Behçet's uveitis.

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confidence: 99%

Editorial: Biological drugs and biosimilars in autoimmune diseases

Wajda

Perricone²,

Kashyap³

et al. 2023

Front. Pharmacol.

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Biosimilars in Ovarian Cancer

Lavhale,

Kesharwani,

Kumar

et al. 2024

Biosimilars for Cancer Treatment

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Literature Review on Health Emigration in Rare Diseases—A Machine Learning Perspective

Skweres-Kuchta

Czerska

Szaruga

2023

IJERPH

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The article deals with one of the effects of health inequalities and gaps in access to treatments for rare diseases, namely health-driven emigration. The purpose of the paper is to systematize knowledge about the phenomenon of health emigration observed among families affected by rare diseases, for which reimbursed treatment is available, but only in selected countries. The topic proved to be niche; the issue of “health emigration in rare diseases” is an area for exploration. Therefore, the further analysis used text mining and machine learning methods based on a database selected based on keywords related to this issue. The results made it possible to systematize the guesses made by researchers in management and economic fields, to identify the most common keywords and thematic clusters around the perspective of the patient, drug manufacturer and treatment reimbursement decision-maker, and the perspective integrating all the others. Since the topic of health emigration was not directly addressed in the selected sources, the authors attempted to define the related concepts and discussed the importance of this phenomenon in managing the support system in rare diseases. Thus, they indicated directions for further research in this area.

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Pharmacoeconomics of Biologic Medicines and Biosimilars

Cited by 4 publications

References 65 publications

Editorial: Biological drugs and biosimilars in autoimmune diseases

Editorial: Biological drugs and biosimilars in autoimmune diseases

Biosimilars in Ovarian Cancer

Literature Review on Health Emigration in Rare Diseases—A Machine Learning Perspective

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