Advanced and affordable medicines
Biological medicines offer new treatment options for multiple diseases. The reference products are patent-protected and therefore are often expensive. With patent expiry, biosimilars offer the same treatment possibilities as the reference product in a more affordable way.
Understanding medicines
Most people think that all medicines are made from chemically manufactured molecules. However, there are actually medicines that are derived from living cells, which are being modified so that they produce active substances that can be used in biological medicines. Biological medicines are being used to treat several health conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis.
Biosimilar medicines
When the patents for those reference medicines expire, medicines that are comparable to the reference products can be manufactured and made available to patients. They are known as biosimilar medicines.
As the name suggests, they are highly similar to the original medicine, and they are of the same quality, efficacy, and safety. Thus, they can be used to treat the same conditions as the original biopharmaceutical drugs. However, they are generally more affordable, which gives more patients access to these hi-tech medicines.