Same Treatment, Lower Price: How Biosimilar Medications Are Making Healthcare More Affordable

The pharmacy team at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas is constantly looking for ways to improve affordability of prescription drugs for our members. Rising drug costs are a big part of today’s health care crisis, but the introduction of biosimilar drugs is expected to create millions in drug savings for employer groups. Biosimilar drugs are relatively new to the prescription drug landscape and are becoming increasingly popular.

The introduction of biologics

Biological drugs, often called biologics, are complex drugs made from a living system, such as a microorganism, plant cell or animal cell. They’re different from your over-the-counter medications or typical pharmacy medications as they go through a separate, unique approval process with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The cost of biologics

The price of a biologic is significant and can cost more than $500,000 per year in some cases.¹ Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on biologic therapies. In 2021 alone, the U.S. spent $256 billion on biologics.² The cost of these therapies now exceeds half of all dollars spent on ALL medications.

The debut of biosimilars

A biosimilar is a product that is highly similar to another biologic that is FDA-approved. Biosimilar drugs typically cost less and show no clinically meaningful difference from biologic drugs in terms of safety and effectiveness. Some studies show that the U.S. health care system is projected to save nearly $40 billion with biosimilars, but with aggressive adoption of biosimilars, the system could save more than $100 billion.³

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas’ role

As a member-owned, not-for-profit insurance company, our commitment to serve Kansans involves making decisions to promote better health and well-being for our members, while also being good stewards of their dollars.

Shifting the mindset to recognize the safety and efficacy of biosimilars will help drive a better market and ultimately drive costs down. To see the biggest health care cost savings for everyone, this takes buy-in from providers, hospitals, health plans and most importantly, our members. We focus on safe and effective medication therapies, and the biologic space is no different.