The Prescription for Health Budgets: Why Europe Needs More Biosimilars

A policy brief from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies shows that European healthcare systems could unlock substantial savings by accelerating the uptake of biosimilar medicines—the lower-cost alternatives to complex biological drugs whose patents have expired. Reaping those financial benefits, the study notes, will require a coordinated combination of public procurement methods, doctor prescribing policies, and pharmacy dispensing rules. Research cited in the brief highlighted potential cost reductions in member states such as Spain.

Biological therapies account for a growing share of healthcare spending across the continent. Increasing the use of biosimilar alternatives allows public health systems to deliver identical clinical outcomes at a fraction of the price, freeing up scarce funds for other medical needs.

While Brussels routinely produces policy frameworks encouraging member states to streamline healthcare spending, national health systems remain strictly sovereign turf. The result is a familiar institutional dance: experts in the EU capital outline the obvious savings of coordinated purchasing, while twenty-seven national ministries proceed to implement them at twenty-seven entirely different speeds.

National health authorities and procurement agencies are expected to evaluate the Observatory's recommendations as they reform drug tendering processes and update national guidelines for doctors and pharmacists.