Legislation is pending Congress that would amend current law to automatically deem all licensed biological products as biosimilars to be interchangeable with the applicable reference products. 

NASPGHAN members are urged to tell their members of Congress this legislation — the Biosimilar Red Tape Elimination Act (S. 2305) — must not be passed without also protecting pediatric patients from non-medical switching. 

The bill  as written provides no protection for children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)  from non-medical switching by insurers and pharmacy benefit mangers (PMBs). Blurring the lines between biosimilarity and interchangeability has the potential to exacerbate insurance company and PBM practices of bypassing approval of the treating physicians before a patient is switched to another biologic, and it ignores the importance of shared decision-making between families and physicians. 

While the bill’s underlying goals of making biologic therapies more affordable are laudable, Congress must take steps to rein in insurance company and PBM practices that harm pediatric IBD patients. Without pediatric patient protections, lawmakers must be urged to vote NO on S.2305. 

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