Are Cancer Biosimilars Similar and Significant Enough to Deserve More Attention?
A partir d'une revue systématique de la littérature publiée jusqu'en février 2023 (39 essais randomisés et 10 études de cohorte, 20 789 patients), cette méta-analyse compare l'efficacité, la sécurité et les coûts des biosimilaires du bévacizumab, du rituximab, du trastuzumab et des médicaments de référence en Chine, sur la période 2015-2022
Cancer represents a major threat to public health and human lives. In recent years, anticancer biologics, such as immune checkpoint blockers and cancer driver molecule–targeting biologics, have been extensively used in the clinic to treat cancers. While they demonstrate efficacy for treating various types of cancers, the usually high cost of biologics too often imposes heavy financial burdens on individuals who need them and on tax-based health care compensation systems. Reduction of the cost for anticancer biologics in countries with constrained health care budgets remains an important issue. Cancer biosimilars, defined as biologics equivalent in purity, safety, and efficacy to more expensive reference drugs, provide a potentially promising solution to increasing patient accessibility and reducing payer burden. Such a promise, however, must be justified by evidence with confirmation of safety and effectiveness and must be demonstrated to be acceptable by health care systems as well as patients. Luo and colleagues reported a systematic review and meta-analysis exploring the medical benefits, pricing, and uptake of cancer biosimilars in comparison with their reference drugs in China.