Discussed Health of the Biosimilar Market, Combatting the Chronic Disease Epidemic
U.S. Can Save $181 Billion Over Next Five Years
WASHINGTON — Yesterday, Congressman Vern Buchanan, Vice Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and Chair of the Health Subcommittee, chaired a hearing on the health of the biosimilar market. Buchanan highlighted how biosimilars can serve as lower cost alternatives to brand name drugs and promoted investments in “food as medicine” to combat the chronic disease epidemic.
Click here or the image above to view Congressman Buchanan’s remarks.
Here’s what Buchanan said about the biosimilar market and adopting “food as medicine:”
Ways and Means Republicans Will Make Innovative Treatments More Accessible and Affordable
Rep. Buchanan: “Biosimilars are safe and effective versions of complex biological products that serve as lower cost alternatives to innovative brand name drugs. Since entering the market in 2015, biosimilars have saved the entire health care system over $23.6 billion. Within the Medicare program specifically, biosimilars reduced Part B spending by $4.4 billion in just 2023 alone. Biosimilars launch at prices up to 35 percent lower than branded drugs and can drive even further savings when they compete with drugs already on the market. This market-based competition lowers costs for all patients in all insurance markets.”
“Still, there is more work to be done to ensure patients have robust access to biosimilars. This ranges from making sure our drug reimbursement systems work correctly, to improving the education and awareness of biosimilars among patients and providers. Outdated reimbursement models in Medicare may disincentivize providers to prescribe lower cost biosimilar products. Additionally, PBMs have perverse incentives to favor high-cost, high-rebate drugs, many times at the expense of patients. We can also work to improve our education and awareness of biosimilars to patients and providers, who frequently report a lack of understanding of their true benefit.”
“Our health care system stands to save $181 billion over the next five years by reducing the barriers to biosimilar adoption and I hope this hearing can help accelerate that goal. … I look forward to working with all of my colleagues this Congress to reduce the impact of the chronic disease epidemic by making innovative treatments more accessible and affordable through biosimilars.”
Food as Medicine Can Combat the Chronic Disease Epidemic
Rep. Buchanan: “Most of you know or have heard of Senator Bill Frist. We had him as a witness earlier in the year. He’s a heart surgeon out of Tennessee, and was also one of the leaders in the Senate. His philosophy now has changed quite a bit where he’s a lot more about ‘food as medicine.’ A lot of the prescriptions that he wrote, in the tens of thousands, he never wrote a prescription for food. It was just for drugs. He looks back on it: ‘There should have been a lot more in terms of nutritional food.’ You’ve got children at 20% obesity, adults at 40% obesity, and these numbers and everything seem to be going the wrong direction, even though we’re spending $4.4 trillion on healthcare. … What is your thought about … the idea of ‘food is medicine,’ meaning that we need more nutritional food?”
Dr. Debra Patt, President, Community Oncology Alliance: “As Ben Franklin said, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ and I think that, whether it’s cancer screening or having a healthy diet and exercise, we can’t underestimate the value of these initiatives and preventing chronic disease. It’s critically important. I do think modern medicine is maybe not emphasizing that as much as one should … I think that all of those things are critically important—again, ‘an ounce a prevention is a pound of cure.’ We need to be making sure we’re educating our patients on the right steps to prevent disease.”
Rep. Buchanan: “A lot of people feel that there would be a lot less cancer, a lot less heart disease, if people had a better nutritional diet.”
Dr. Debra Pratt: “We see actually that cancer among young adults, so those less than 50, is increasing at a rate of about 1 to 2 percent per year right now. While we don’t know all of the causes, we suspect a lot of that is because of diet and sedentary lifestyle, so I think that the best evidence supports that we need to be emphasizing prevention quite a bit more, though again, that’s not to say that we don’t need to continue to invest in innovative therapies.”
Rep. Buchanan: “You look at our numbers for Type Two diabetics, they’re off the charts. … I’ve got 10 grandkids 10 and under, and I just think about the idea that for a lot of kids today, their obesity rates are 20 percent. It used to be 3 or 4 percent, so there’s a lot more we can do. Anybody else want to weigh in?”
Dr. Colin Edgerton, Director, Articularis Healthcare Group: “I completely agree. I think that lifestyle issues are where we can intervene and help to prevent some of these diseases, and I think that focus is growing. There certainly is a lot of interest among patients in rheumatology coming and asking about things like anti-inflammatory diets, other different foods they can eat to prevent their gout, things like that. I’m glad that we’re seeing that interest and that we can, as we’ve said, merge that with the pharmaceutical and other treatments that we have available and really try to keep our population more healthy.”
Buchanan has been a leading advocate in Congress for the MAHA agenda and combatting chronic diseases. Last month, Buchanan’s Chronic Disease Flexible Coverage Act (H.R. 919), which expands treatment options provided through employers’ healthcare coverage for Americans living with chronic diseases, passed the House with a unanimous bipartisan vote. [GJ1] Last fall, Buchanan chaired a Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Hearing on “Investing in a Healthier America“ and the critical role preventive medicine and healthy living play in combatting chronic disease and the obesity epidemic.
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