Biosimilars Canada Encourages Stakeholders To Join #GlobalBiosimilarsWeek

Biosimilars Canada, in collaboration with the International Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association (IGBA), invites biosimilars stakeholders to take part in the second annual Global Biosimilars Week from November 1 to 5.

This social media awareness campaign will gather biosimilar resources, ideas and stories of stakeholders under the hashtag #GlobalBiosimilarsWeek.

“Biosimilars Canada has been proud to organize Global Biosimilars Week with our IGBA colleagues to help raise awareness of biosimilars and their benefits for patients, healthcare providers and drug plans in Canada and around the world,” said Jim Keon, President of Biosimilars Canada. “Through education and the adoption of policies to support the expanded use of biosimilars we can achieve the goal of advancing access to biosimilars for all.”

“The COVID-19 global health crisis has led governments and the entire health care community to rethink and rebuild health care systems. This includes focusing on their ability to efficiently deliver access to biologic therapies and to effectively address Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD),” explained Sudarshan Jain, Chair of the IGBA. “Now is a time to reconcile the unique opportunity provided by the availability of biosimilar medicines and the rising challenges for many patients around the world to access quality-assured transformative therapies. We need to redouble the efforts to effectively tackle NCDs and biosimilar medicines are part of the solution.”

“With 15 years of positive biosimilar medicines contribution to patient health and health care system sustainability, the challenges and remedies to efficient use of biosimilar medicines are well known. Our new white paper aims to facilitate experience sharing for communities wanting to Advance Access in their country or region and more importantly to implement effective and tailored strategies in tackling Non-Communicable Diseases locally,” said Julie Maréchal-Jamil, Co-Chair of the IGBA Biosimilars Committee.

In addition, the IGBA will host an online webinar “Unlocking the Global Biosimilar Opportunity in Tackling Non-Communicable Diseases” on November 2.

About Biosimilars Canada
Biosimilars Canada is a national association representing the biosimilar medicines industry in Canada. Our member companies are at the forefront of the global development and marketing of biosimilar medicines. Biosimilars Canada provides leadership in educating Canadian stakeholders about the safety and efficacy of biosimilar medicines, and advocates for policies that support their timely approval, reimbursement, market acceptance and expanded use. Biosimilars Canada is a division of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association. For more information, visit www.biosimilarscanada.ca.

About IGBA
The International Generic and Biosimilar medicines Association (IGBA) strengthens cooperation between associations representing manufacturers of generic and biosimilar medicines from around the world. Adopting a patient centric approach, IGBA works to improve patients’ access to quality-assured, safe and cost-effective medicines by promoting competition and enabling innovation in the pharmaceutical sector and sustainable economic contributions for all stakeholders. For more details, regarding IGBA and its member associations, see the IGBA website at: www.igbamedicines.org.

About Biosimilar Medicines¹
A biosimilar biologic drug, or biosimilar, is a drug demonstrated to be highly similar to a biologic drug that was already authorized for sale. Health Canada evaluates all the information provided to confirm that the biosimilar and the reference biologic drug are similar and that there are no clinically meaningful differences in safety and efficacy between them. Health Canada’s rigorous standards for authorization mean that you can have the same confidence in the quality, safety and efficacy of a biosimilar as any other biologic drug.

¹ Health Canada, Biosimilar biologic drugs in Canada: Fact Sheet.