This report is an updated version of the QuintilesIMS report 'The impact of biosimilar competition in Europe'. The first version was published in May 2015.

Biological medicines are increasingly used to treat many chronic and often disabling conditions. Examples are cancer, diabetes or inflammatory diseases.  Biosimilar medicines are highly similar in all essential aspects to an already approved biological medicine.

A key argument for the introduction of biosimilars is to increase patient access by lowering prices.

This report shows a consistent average price reduction in therapy areas where biosimilars have been introduced. Increased biosimilar competition affects not only the price for the directly comparable product but for the whole product class. In some cases, the biosimilar version of a product ends up not getting sold. Even then it's likely to eventually be an essential step to a competitive environment, leading to lower prices.

Some countries had a low usage/availability in specific classes before. Here, price reductions seem to significantly increase access for patients to biological medicines.

The updated document describes the effects on price, volume and market share after the market entry of biosimilars in the European Economic Area.

The base of the document is a set of indicators considered appropriate for monitoring market development and the impact of biosimilar competition. QuintilesIMS prepared the report in cooperation with industry stakeholders on request of the European Commission. It contains a set of observations and a reading guide.

The first presentation of the report took place at the Commission's stakeholder conference on biosimilars in Brussels on 5 May 2017. The outcomes of the stakeholder event will be made available on the Commission’s website.

More information

See our 'projects' under the 'platform on access to medicines' on our biosimilars in the EU page.