What is medical interchangeability and how does it apply to Biosimilars?

euronews (in English)

Have you ever heard of the concept of 'interchangeability' in the medical field? We went to the European Medicines Agency to understand what it is and what it means for EU patients and health systems.

Transcript

00:00 Have you ever heard of the concept of interchangeability in the medical field?

00:07 We went to the European Medicines Agency to understand what it is and what it means for

00:12 EU patients and health systems.

00:16 The EMA's Chief Medical Officer, Stefan Thurstrep, gave us some insights.

00:21 It's a difficult word and interchangeability means that you can substitute or switch one

00:27 product with another.

00:29 And when we talk about interchangeability of biosimilars, we are talking about patients

00:33 who are already being treated with the reference product, that they can be switched to a biosimilar

00:40 version of that reference product, or that they even could be switched between different

00:46 biosimilars with the same reference product.

00:50 And ultimately also be started therapy on a biosimilar instead, so you don't have to

00:54 go via the originated product.

00:56 The big advantage is saving of money.

00:59 There's no therapeutic advantage because these products are the same, they have the same

01:04 efficacy and have the same safety.

01:06 But there is the opportunity because they typically are at a lower price, so the healthcare

01:11 system can save money or they can even maybe offer the therapy to more patients at the

01:16 same cost.

01:17 [Music]

01:21 (upbeat music)

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