University of Toronto launches two new courses on biosimilars

Ontario is switching patients on the Ontario Drug Benefit plan on some biologic drugs to biosimilars, requiring that people on eight common biosimilars switch before the end of the year. Most other provinces and territories have similar switching policies, and dozens of biosimilar biologics are now approved by Health Canada. And that’s coming with questions from patients, caregivers and healthcare providers. The University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy has developed two new edX online courses to help patients and healthcare providers better understand this new situation. “As more and more products are coming off patent and there are more biosimilar products, the need for education really grounds everything,” says Kathy Vu, assistant professor at the teaching stream at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. “[These courses] will make sure that we’re not perpetuating fear, that patients feel comfortable making any type of transition and they don’t feel forced.” Read: Biosimilars now considered interchangeable in the European Union One is a free MOOC course for patients and caregivers that explains in-depth what biosimilars are, the evidence around them, how provinces and territories across Canada are using them, and addresses misconceptions about their use. Pharmacists can promote the course with QR codes and other displays that let patients know it exists and allows them to access the information. The course starts on May 29. The second is a professional certificate for pharmacy, nursing and medical professionals that discusses how originator and biosimilar medicines work, the evidence behind switching, misconceptions, and the benefits of biosimilars. The main difference between the patient and professional courses is a section on how to educate patients on biologics. “There’s a whole module around communication because we just want to make sure that healthcare providers are communicating it effectively, in a way that is productive for patients,” says Vu. Healthcare providers are encouraged to take both courses. Read: ‘Self-driving labs’ at the University of Toronto receives $200-million grant The courses came out of a needs assessment from 2019–2020. During that, “Pharmacists and physicians shared the same perceived needs, around the evidence for safety and efficacy, and also around interchangeability,” says Vu. “[They had questions like] can they just interchange a biosimilar for the originator product? Is it considered the same as a generic medication?” The course answers those questions, explaining, for example, that it’s not quite the same in the way that generic drugs are because of inherent variability in biologics and that there is even variability between batches in originator biologic drugs. Even three years later, Vu says, many people still need to be more comfortable with those areas, partially community pharmacists, who tend only to see a few prescriptions for biosimilars. Read: ISMP course helps pharmacists avoid medication incidents in kids From the patient side, she says, switching policies will prompt questions and some concerns. “In the oncology world switching over to therapeutic biosimilars, we were anticipating a lot of fears around, is this going to work just the same, is it going to compromise my survival? But what we found is that I think by providing information and education upfront to the patient that the transition was actually a lot smoother than we anticipated,” she says. Common concerns include that the biosimilars aren’t exactly the same thing, so they might not work as well as the originator biologic, and that they may have additional side effects. Vu is hopeful that the same information-first approach used in oncology will reduce patients’ worries across the board. “Once they’re familiar with the fact that Europe has been doing this for 15 years, Canada has been using biosimilars for 10 years, some of that fear will be alleviated,” she says, though she adds that there will always be a group of people who just don’t want to switch—perhaps people who have tried many therapies or experienced many side effects before on other drugs. This information will only get more important in the future, says Vu. “I think we’re going to start to see biosimilars anywhere and everywhere—chronic diseases, acute diseases. And any trusted source of education will be extremely important to make sure that misinformation is not perpetuated.” Read: COVID-19 misinformation contributed to 2,800 Canadian deaths, report suggests

University of Toronto launches two new courses on biosimilars

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