Addressing the 15th Biosimilar Medicines Conference, Minister for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties Helena Dalli spoke about the advantages of biosimilar medicines which are available on the market at 10-70% lower in price when compared to their reference products and which lead to a more sustainable healthcare system.
Minister Dalli remarked how biosimilar medicines have a significant impact on health systems as they enable patients to access a greater range of medicines, while ensuring greater competition in the biologic medicines market, helping to balance the issues of access and affordability.
Minister Dalli explained how the introduction of biosimilars in Malta has already saved thousands of euros to the health system. This money is being used to introduce other medicines to the National Health Service.
"Every additional euro saved through prescribing a cost effective medicine is an extra euro for re-investment in treating more patients, providing access to advanced treatments and also other health services like additional human resources in hospitals, training and state of the art equipment" added Minister Dalli.
The Minister said that biosimilars face the challenge of acceptance by healthcare professionals and patients and stressed how a lot has yet to be done for stakeholders to understand biologic medicines.
Dr Dalli emphasised the importance of ensuring accessible, understandable and reliable information on biologics, including biosimilar medicines to support patients' and physicians' informed decisions.