Out-of-Pocket Spending for Biologic Drugs After Biosimilar Competition for Medicare Patients

For 7 biologic medications that faced biosimilar competition from 2009-2022, was this competition associated with lower out-of-pocket (OOP) spending for Medicare patients who used these medications?In this cross-sectional study including 273 774 patient-years, mean annual OOP spending 4 years after biosimilar competition began decreased by a mean of $94 compared with the year prior to competition.These findings suggest that by reducing OOP spending, biosimilar competition may improve access to biologic medications for Medicare patients.

Corresponding Author: Benjamin N. Rome, MD, MPH, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 1620 Tremont St, Ste 3030, Boston, MA 02120 (brome@bwh.harvard.edu).

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