OBJECTIVES: Biosimilar medications are medications that are “highly similar” to the original biological counterparts and are considered a more affordable and cheaper alternatives. For Controlled Budget Environments (CBE) like governmental hospitals, providing patient access to highly specified products and targeted therapies, while maintaining a good budget to cover for all the other responsibilities and commitments are one of the most difficult challenges that decision makers and the budget holders encounter. The aim of this study is to analyze the utilizations of the biological products in one of the tertiary governmental hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and to calculate the amount of savings that would’ve resulted from the adoption and inclusion of the biosimilar products.

METHODS: Data were collected retrospectively during the year 2020. The utilization of the biological products was divided into three hospital areas: IV Room, In-Patient and Out-Patient utilizations.

RESULTS: The overall saving during the year 2020 were as much as 10,560,989 SAR (around $2,816,264). The highest amounts of savings were for: rituximab 100mg/10mL Injection, Erythropoietins and adalimumab 40mg/0.8ml Pre-filled Syringe for the IV Room, In-Patient and Out-Patient utilizations, respectively. The amounts of extra units of these medications that could have been procured, had the biosimilar product been included were 375, 3865 and 2625, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the adoption of biosimilar medications could have resulted in a significant amount of savings on the hospital budget. The savings that were calculated; assuming the adoption of the biosimilar products as a replacement to the currently utilized original biological products; could have been reallocated to other services or for the procurements of the more units of the same biological products which will allow for the access of higher numbers of eligible patients to the biological drugs therapy.