Browsing by Author "Alho, Eerika"

Biological medicines are used, for example, in the treatment of diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. Biological medicines cause a significant part of the costs of prescription drugs in outpatient care. In Finland, automatic substitution of biological medicines will be introduced in 2024–2025 to promote the use of biosimilars and to increase price competition. When substituting biological medicines, pharmacists are required to counsel the customer and ensure proper use of the new administration device. The objective of this study was to study Finnish community pharmacists’ knowledge about biological medicines and biosimilars and the need for further training. Data was collected with an electronic questionnaire and analyzed using frequencies and percentages. Associations between background variables and readiness for automatic substitution were analyzed using crosstabulation and chi-squared test. Differences in drug-specific knowledge were compared using sum variables. Most pharmacists (n=899) answered that they understood at least the basics of what biological medicines and biosimilars are. The important role of biosimilars in reducing society's drug costs seemed to be well understood, but only one in four (25.0%) felt that they were ready for automatic substitution. Master’s degree in pharmacy, graduating as a pharmacist (BSc) between 2010 and 2022, and working in community pharmacy for less than 10 years after graduating as pharmacist (BSc) increased the experience of readiness for automatic substitution. Previous work in the pharmaceutical industry or wholesale trade, in official positions or in research and teaching positions also increased the experience of readiness for automatic substitution, as well as clinical expertise or additional training in the field of pharmacy. Drug-specific knowledge seemed to be best about enoxaparin and insulins. Further training was needed especially on the differences of administration devices and giving injection advice. The strength of this study was a representative sample of pharmaceutical personnel working in Finnish community pharmacies, although low response rate weakens generalizability of the results. The results give an indication of how Finnish community pharmacists assessed their knowledge about biological medicines and biosimilars before the introduction of automatic substitution in Finland. Further research is needed to monitor the development of knowledge about biological medicines and to examine customers’ experience on the quality of medication counselling related to biological medicines at pharmacies.