Biosimilars: Some Patient And Prescriber Groups Appear To Warm Up To Arbitrary Suffixes

 
• By Michael Cipriano

Patient and prescriber groups were largely opposed to suffixes for the nonproprietary names of biological products being devoid of meaning when the US FDA first published its nomenclature policy, although a few of these groups may be signaling less of a worry than they once had. 

The US FDA has approved 20 biosimilars, all but one with an arbitrary suffix. Some patient and prescriber groups are now warming up to the nomencature.

When the US Food and Drug Administration first put out draft guidance in 2015 on the nonproprietary naming of biological products, a slew of prescriber and patient groups felt that the four-letter suffixes that would be attached to the nonproprietary names should be meaningful rather than arbitrary.

But it appears that at least some of these organizations have warmed up to the naming convention to a certain...

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