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Biosimilar update: the Pan-Canadian Oncology Biosimilars Initiative; Health Canada announces collaboration on study of comparative effectiveness and safety of biosimilar drugs

Authored byUrszula Wojtyra

The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA) and Cancer Care Ontario have partnered to create a pan-Canadian Oncology Biosimilars Initiative, which aims to ensure appropriate implementation and cost-effective use of therapeutic oncology biosimilars across Canada. In November 2018, the Initiative held a Pan-Canadian Oncology Biosimilars Summit. The Initiative has released a Proceedings Report of the Summit, as well as a pan-Canadian Oncology Biosimilars Initiative Action Plan.

Separately, Health Canada announced that it is collaborating with the Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network on a project studying patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases and inflammatory bowel disease who are taking biologic drugs, aiming to compare the safety and effectiveness of biosimilar drugs to the reference biologic drug. The protocol for the study can be found here.