B.C.’s Health Minister Adrian Dix is announcing new policies to cut back government costs of Pharmacare.

The province is switching its coverage for some prescription drugs from biologic to biosimilar versions.

Dix says the change is expected to save $96.6 million in the first three years, which he says will go back into Pharmacare.

He says biologics need living organisms such as yeast or bacteria to produced, which he says is the root of what is driving up costs. Biosimilars mimic biologic prescription drugs but don’t require living organisms.

“Biologic drugs continue to be a growing budget pressure for public drug plans. If we continue to spend more and more of our finite health dollars on biologics, it restricts our ability to provide coverage from existing drugs. Not to mention hindering our ability to list any new drugs,” Dix says.

People who take prescriptions to treat conditions like arthritis and Crohn’s disease will have six months to switch their prescription from biologic to biosimilar drugs, to ensure they’re still covered.

Dix says some European countries have as high as 90 per cent usage of biosimilars for some prescription drugs, and he says that number is lagging behind in Canada, at less than 10 per cent.

“While biologics have been a major breakthrough of treatment options for conditions… highly-similar versions of these drugs are on the market. Biosimilars are drugs that are created to copy the exact makeup of a biologic drug. Consider them to be the next generation of biologic drug.”

The province and medical experts who spoke to media today acknowledged switching prescriptions will be “an inconvenience” for many prescription drug users, however the handful of medical experts say biologics and biosimilars are “basically identical twins,” and say they have been calling for the policy change in government for years.