The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) has released a statement on the safety of biosimilar medicines.

The PBAC recently made a recommendation to allow biologics to be substituted with biosimilar drugs by clinicians and pharmacists if the biosimilar is found to be a safe and effective equivalent treatment.

The difference between biosimilar drugs and generic drugs is that generic drugs are usually exactly the same as the original patented medicine. Because of both the complex nature of biologics and the way they are made, even though biosimilar drugs act in the same way as the original patented biologic, they may not be exactly the same. However we would not recommending them as substitutable with each other unless the PBAC is sure of their equal safety and effectiveness.

For more details, go to: http://www.pbs.gov.au/news/2015/06/statement-from-pbac-safety-of-biosimilars.pdf