Published in:
Open Access 01-08-2021 | Vulgar Psoriasis | Brief Report
Confidence in Biosimilar Drugs is Not Much Improved by Framing Them as the “Gold” Alternative Treatment Option to Bio-originators
Published in: Dermatology and Therapy | Issue 4/2021
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Introduction
Biosimilar drugs have promising potential to provide substantial health, financial, and access benefits to patients and the entire healthcare system. However, skepticism remains a hurdle to their incorporation into clinical practice.
Methods
In this study, we evaluated how confidence in biosimilar drugs is impacted by framing them as the “gold” alternative treatment option to bio-originators. An online survey was administered to subjects with self-reported diagnoses of psoriasis. All participants were provided a hypothetical scenario that their insurance would not cover the costs of a bio-originator agent. They were randomized to one of two groups which both received three alternative treatment options; group one was presented a biosimilar without framing and group two was presented a biosimilar framed as the “gold” alternative treatment option.
Results
More respondents in the “gold” framing intervention group than in the control group were confident in the biosimilar (30.3 vs. 25.8%); however, the differences were small and not statistically significantly different (p = 0.266).
Conclusion
It does not appear that framing biosimilar drugs as the “gold” alternative treatment option to their reference products has a large impact on confidence in them.