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Canadian Province Expands Biosimilar Switching, But Patient Group Voices Concerns

 
• By Aidan Fry

British Columbia’s move to switch gastrointestinal patients to biosimilar infliximabs by March 2020 has pleased local industry but upset an originator-backed patients’ group.

Cockpit
Patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are to be switched to biosimilars in Canada's British Columbia province • Source: Shutterstock

Around 1,700 gastroenterology patients currently taking Remicade (infliximab) in British Columbia will have six months to transition to Pfizer’s Inflectra or Merck’s Renflexis biosimilars after the Canadian province expanded its biosimilars switching program. But patient group Crohn’s and Colitis Canada is pushing back against what it considers to be “non-medical switching.”

In late May, British Columbia’s government announced a program that included allowing about 20,700 patients with ankylosing spondylitis, diabetes, plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis six months to work with their healthcare teams to transition from the reference brand to a biosimilar by 25 November 2019

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