Drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim and prescription savings platform GoodRx have teamed up to provide Boehringer’s Humira biosimilar for an exclusive cash price on GoodRx, the companies announced Thursday.
Santa Monica, California-based GoodRx helps consumers compare prescription drug prices and get coupons. Boehringer’s adalimumab-adbm is being offered on GoodRx’s platform for $550 per two-pack, a 92% discount from the Humira list price, according to the announcement. A biosimilar drug is a medicine that is very similar in structure and function to a biologic medicine. Boehringer’s adalimumab-adbm is used to treat autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, psoriatic arthritis and ulcerative colitis.
“The news here is that this is the first time that a manufacturer is using our platform to enable a cash price for a biosimilar,” said Dorothy Gemmell, chief commercial officer at GoodRx, in an interview. “This moves us from retail drugs to specialty medications. People that take specialty medications — particularly biologics, whether it’s for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis — are folks with very complex illnesses and it’s a very complex patient journey.”
To receive the exclusive cash price, patients with a prescription for the drug can get a coupon for it through GoodRx. They can then use the coupon at over 70,000 retail pharmacies across the U.S.
Eligible, commercially insured patients may pay as little as $0 for the drug through GoodRx’s and Boehringer’s partnership. However, Gemmell noted that there are various reasons why patients may choose to pay for the medication out of pocket.
“We’re seeing an increase in High Deductible Health Plans,” she said. “They have a $6,000 or $9,000 family deductible, so that $550 just may be worth it for them even though they have that insurance. We are seeing an increase in non-coverage, like increased restrictive formularies. Then the third thing is we’re seeing more hurdles to filling the prescription, whether it be prior authorization or step therapy. … For any of those three reasons, even though in those cases they all have insurance, they may still be looking for an option to just get the medication faster and more seamlessly.”
The news comes at a time when prescription drug costs in the U.S. are 2.78 times higher than other countries. About one in five adults in the U.S. say they haven’t filled their prescription because of cost. Biosimilars cost significantly less than biologics, but they’re underutilized since “many health plans make biosimilars difficult to access because they’re financially disincentivized,” according to a report by Kaiser Permanente.
Gemmell said she anticipates GoodRx offering additional biosimilars on its platform for an exclusive cash price in the future. GoodRx has also been partnering with several pharmacy benefit managers, including CVS Caremark and MedImpact, to help patients access lower-cost prescriptions.
Photo: cagkansayin, Getty Images
