Dr Sonia T. Oskouei Discusses Uptake, Cost Savings With Filgrastim Biosimilar Xarzio

Xarzio currently has the majority of the market share for filgrastim products, explained Sonia T. Oskouei, PharmD, director, Pharmacy Program Development for Biosimilars, Premier Inc.

Transcript

While many approved biosimilars have just recently hit the market, Zarxio has been on the market for a few years. What has uptake of this biosimilar been like, and have cost savings been demonstrated?

Uptake has been fairly well. We would consider Zarxio one of the more successful biosimilars available on the market. Just recently, it’s actually become one of the products that has the majority of the market share for the filgrastim products. So, specifically, that product has been doing well compared with all the other biosimilars of course that’s out there.

That is an area where we have seen cost savings within health systems and providers with utilizing the product because it is a lower cost agent. Often times, depending on the site of care, that will determine how much savings you can see pretty immediately. With that type of supportive agent, it’s administered often in inpatient setting. So, lower cost agents is what the goal is for the most part. So, we see cost savings in that areas and then of course for those practices that are participating in the OCM [Oncology Care Model], this is a great opportunity too for a cost savings agent.