'Rigged' pay­ment schemes by in­sur­ers and PBMs is block­ing the switch to biosim­i­lars, says FDA com­mis­sion­er

Hav­ing called out brand name drug com­pa­nies for de­lay­ing mar­ket en­try of gener­ic drugs, FDA Com­mis­sion­er Scott Got­tlieb made in­sur­ers and phar­ma­cy ben­e­fit man­agers his lat­est tar­gets to blame for lag­gard biosim­i­lar de­vel­op­ment.

In a speech ad­dress­ing a con­fer­ence of health in­sur­ers, Got­tlieb con­demned a “rigged pay­ment scheme” that dis­in­cen­tivizes pay­ers from switch­ing to biosim­i­lars — a no­tion some have called a “re­bate trap.”

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