The British Society for Rheumatology issued a position statement supporting the use of biosimilar medicines in February 2015.
The Rheumatology team at South Warwickshire Foundation Trust have not been able to undertake biosimilar switches due to lack of capacity and increased work load.
Arden & GEM Commissioning Support Unit (AGEM CSU) worked with the local CCG to take an innovative approach to support the safe introduction of adalimumab biosimilar into the rheumatology department patient cohort.
Our approach involved the CSU employing and placing a prescribing pharmacist into the trust to facilitate the biosimilar switch process and ensured cost saving provisions of high cost biologicals such as Adalimumab and Rituximab. This generated significant cost savings across the health economy.
