Physician Familiarity With Biosimilars Has Increased Significantly Over The Past Year

EXTON, Pa., Aug. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- BioTrends Research Group, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for specialized biopharmaceutical issues, finds a significant increase in the percentage of surveyed specialists who are extremely familiar with biosimilars in 2013 compared with 2012, although this group remains a minority of all physicians.

The Biosimilars Advisory Service report entitled Acceptance of Biosimilars Across Physician Specialties provides analysis of survey results from 560 physicians across six specialties in the United States and Europe. The report finds that surveyed endocrinologists are least familiar with biosimilars, with only a minority saying they are very or extremely familiar with biosimilars compared with the majority of surveyed hematologist-oncologists across all countries. On average, hematologist-oncologists and medical oncologists report significantly higher levels of familiarity compared with nephrologists and endocrinologists. From a country perspective, surveyed physicians in Germany are significantly more familiar with biosimilars than those in France, although there has been a significant increase in familiarity among French physicians this year compared with data collected in 2012.

The majority of all surveyed physicians perceive reference brands and biosimilars to be very similar to one another. Surveyed endocrinologists view biosimilars as being least similar to the reference brand; less than one half say biosimilars are very similar to the reference brand compared with two thirds of hematologist-oncologists who feel the same. The report also quantifies the correlation between physicians' level of familiarity with biosimilars and their perception of similarity between biosimilars and their reference brands.   

"Despite the availability of biosimilar somatropin plus epoetin alfa and zeta in Europe, surveyed European endocrinologists and nephrologists remain less familiar with biosimilars compared with their oncologist colleagues, although we do see marked differences by country among surveyed nephrologists," said BioTrends Research Group Senior Director, Andrew Merron, Ph.D.  "Conversely, reflecting the good acceptance of biosimilars and the relatively high level of biosimilar filgrastim uptake, surveyed European hematologist-oncologists and medical oncologists report a high level of familiarity with biosimilars. We expect this finding will contribute to a comparatively rapid uptake of complex biosimilars among oncologists compared with other specialists."

The Biosimilars Advisory Service provides insight and analysis that is vital to successful business planning in the rapidly evolving biosimilars space. The service includes quarterly webinars detailing major developments, analyst insight addressing key market changes and opportunities, therapeutic area-specific primary research and forecasting modules.

About BioTrends Research Group
BioTrends Research Group provides syndicated and custom primary market research to pharmaceutical manufacturers competing in clinically evolving, specialty pharmaceutical markets. For information on BioTrends publications and research capabilities, please visit www.bio-trends.com. BioTrends is a Decision Resources Group company.

About Decision Resources Group
Decision Resources Group is a cohesive portfolio of companies that offers best-in-class, high-value information and insights on important sectors of the healthcare industry. Clients rely on this analysis and data to make informed decisions. Please visit Decision Resources Group at www.DecisionResourcesGroup.com.

All company, brand, or product names contained in this document may be trademarks of their respective holders.

For more information, contact:

Decision Resources Group
Christopher Comfort
781-993-2597
[email protected]

SOURCE BioTrends Research Group

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