Confidence in Biosimilar Drugs is Not Much Improved by Framing Them as the “Gold” Alternative Treatment Option to Bio-originators

Abstract

Introduction: Biosimilar drugs have promising potential to provide substantial health, financial, and access benefits to patients and the entire healthcare system. However, skepticism remains a hurdle to their incorporation into clinical practice. Methods: In this study, we evaluated how confidence in biosimilar drugs is impacted by framing them as the “gold” alternative treatment option to bio-originators. An online survey was administered to subjects with self-reported diagnoses of psoriasis. All participants were provided a hypothetical scenario that their insurance would not cover the costs of a bio-originator agent. They were randomized to one of two groups which both received three alternative treatment options; group one was presented a biosimilar without framing and group two was presented a biosimilar framed as the “gold” alternative treatment option. Results: More respondents in the “gold” framing intervention group than in the control group were confident in the biosimilar (30.3 vs. 25.8%); however, the differences were small and not statistically significantly different (p = 0.266). Conclusion: It does not appear that framing biosimilar drugs as the “gold” alternative treatment option to their reference products has a large impact on confidence in them.