Hospital Pharmacist
2008;15:4
January 2008

News summary

New guidance on biopharmaceuticals

Biopharmaceuticals (medicines derived from biotechnology) should always be prescribed by brand, rather than by their generic name, according to a new Parliamentary panel report. Some of these medicines are reaching their patent expiry and follow-on products (biosimilars) are not identical to the original medicine. Small or even undetectable structural differences may have clinical consequences.

The report recommends that patients be maintained on the specific medicine on which they started treatment and that substitution of one product for another should be banned. The report points out that France, Spain, the Netherlands and the Scandanavian countries have all developed non-substitution policies, but no law has been developed in the UK (see Meetings, p26).