Anticipating payer objections and policy barriers to inform market access

Developing tailored responses to payer and policy maker objections for a portfolio of biosimilar products.

The challenge

Global, national and local policies for biosimilars can often deter or influence market access - it is crucial any potential barriers are discussed with payers and policy decision makers up front to provide an optimal route for products to reach patients. Our client was about to launch several biosimilar products and wished to produce an internal document to provide valuable support and guidance to affiliates in managing payer queries and discussions with policy leads.

The solution

We developed two objection handlers to identify relevant questions and responses that would aid discussions with payers and to educate/influence policy makers. The two objection handlers were tailored to specific payer and policy needs in terms of education around biosimilar country policy, uptake of biosimilars, clinical trial design, and the equivalence of biosimilars to the originator product.

Key results

Using our past experience working on reimbursement submissions and negotiations for biosimilars, we identified numerous queries that could arise as a result of discussions with payers and policy makers. These queries covered areas such as:

> Clinical benefits of the intervention. 
> Economic benefits of the intervention.
> Global and national-specific biosimilar policies.

Value to the client

Local affiliates were able to prepare informed responses to potential queries, to explain the key rationale and value messages for the biosimilars, and to facilitate reimbursement discussions with payers.