The use of the biosimilar drug can lead to large health care savings that can be reinvested for continued innovation: Analysis of consumption of an Italian health care company

BACKGROUND

Biosimilar drugs offer an opportunity for all global healthcare systems because they provide significant cost savings while ensuring equal efficacy and safety in the treatment of chronic diseases. These savings can be allocated to support ongoing innovation.

METHODS

An analysis of the usage of major biosimilar drugs across various therapeutic areas has been conducted within an Italian healthcare company serving a population of over one million. Data on consumption, expenditure, and the number of treated patients has been extracted from the company's databases. Finally, a comparison with the year 2021 has been performed to determine if biosimilar drug usage increased in 2022.

RESULTS

In 2022, the data reveals that a substantial portion of the analysed active ingredients are being used as biosimilar drugs, except in a few residual cases. However, among the most consumed drugs, resistance still exists in the case of Adalimumab and Etanercept, for which expenditure on originator drugs exceeds 2 million euros.

CONCLUSION

The 2022-2021 comparison highlights the increasing use of biosimilar drugs. This data is encouraging and suggests that in the coming months, we may achieve total utilization, which would be to the benefit of the National Health System (NHS) and the citizens who can rely on an efficient and sustainable healthcare policy that is continually improving.

Analysis of biosimilars consumption in an Italian Local Health Authority

Biosimilar drugs offer an opportunity for all global healthcare systems because they provide significant cost savings while ensuring equal efficacy and safety in the treatment of chronic diseases. These savings can be allocated to support ongoing innovation. An analysis of the usage of major biosimilar drugs across various therapeutic areas has been conducted within an Italian healthcare company serving a population of over one million. Data on consumption, expenditure, and the number of treated patients has been extracted from the company's databases. Finally, a comparison with the year 2021 has been performed to determine if biosimilar drug usage increased in 2022. In 2022, the data reveals that a substantial portion of the analysed active ingredients are being used as biosimilar drugs, except in a few residual cases. However, among the most consumed drugs, resistance still exists in the case of Adalimumab and Etanercept, for which expenditure on originator drugs exceeds 2 million euros. The 2022-2021 comparison highlights the increasing use of biosimilar drugs. This data is encouraging and suggests that in the coming months, we may achieve total utilization, which would be to the benefit of the National Healthcare System (NHS) and the citizens who can rely on an efficient and sustainable healthcare policy that is continually improving.

Lentinus crinitus: Traditional use, phytochemical and pharmacological activities, and industrial and biotechnological applications

The saprophytic basidiomycete Lentinus crinitus (L.) Fr is a Brazilian native fungus with pantropical occurrence. L. crinitus produces edible fruiting bodies with medicinal, nutritional, and biotechnological applications. The compounds from fungal fruiting bodies can be applied to the preparation of products in the food, cosmetic, biomedical, and pharmaceutical industries. Our aim was to review the literature on L. crinitus concerning its botanical description, geographical distribution, phytochemistry, pharmacological properties, nutritional value, and biotechnology potential (in vitro cultivation and enzyme production). Scientific search engines, including ScienceDirect, CAPES Journals Portal, Google Scholar, PubMed, SciELO, MEDLINE, LILACS, and SciFinder, were consulted to gather data on L. crinitus. The present review is an up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of the phytochemical compounds, phytopharmacological activities, and biotechnological value of L. crinitus. Extracts from L. crinitus have been reported to exhibit numerous in vitro pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, and anticancer. The substances in these extracts belong to different classes of chemical compounds such as polysaccharides, fatty acids, terpenes, phenolic acids, and flavonoids. Reviews on Brazilian native fungi are of great importance for scientific knowledge, with great applicability as a mirror for species of the same family. The ethnobotanical, phytochemical, pharmacological, ethnomedicinal, and biotechnological properties of L. crinitus highlighted in this review provide information for future studies and commercial exploitation, and reveal that this fungus has enormous potential for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, biotechnological, and ecological applications.

Potential of growth-promoting bacteria in maize (Zea mays L.) varies according to soil moisture

Climate change has caused irregularities in water distribution, which affect the soil drying-wetting cycle and the development of economically important agricultural crops. Therefore, the use of plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) emerges as an efficient strategy to mitigate negative impacts on crop yield. We hypothesized that the use of PGPB (in consortium or not) had potential to promote maize (Zea mays L.) growth under a soil moisture gradient in both non-sterile and sterile soils. Thirty PGPB strains were characterized for direct plant growth-promotion and drought tolerance induction mechanisms and were used in two independent experiments. Four soil water contents were used to simulate a severe drought (30% of field capacity [FC]), moderate drought (50% of FC), no drought (80% of FC) and, finally, a water gradient comprising the three mentioned soil water contents (80%, 50%, and 30% of FC). Two bacteria strains (BS28-7 Arthrobacter sp. and BS43 Streptomyces alboflavus), in addition to three consortia (BC2, BC4 and BCV) stood out in maize growth performance in experiment 1 and were used in experiment 2. Overall, under moderate drought, inoculation with BS43 surpassed the control treatment in root dry mass and nutrient uptake. Considering the water gradient treatment (80-50-30% of FC), the greatest total biomass was found in the uninoculated treatment when compared to BS28-7, BC2, and BCV. The greatest development of Z. mays L. was only observed under constant water stress conditions in the presence of PGPB. This is the first report that demonstrated the negative effect of individual inoculation of Arthrobacter sp. and the consortium of this strain with Streptomyces alboflavus on the growth of Z. mays L. based on a soil moisture gradient; however, future studies are needed for further validation.

Recent advances of chitosan-based nanoparticles for biomedical and biotechnological applications

Chitosan is a natural alkaline polysaccharide, which widely exists in marine crustaceans such as shrimp and crab, has been shown to have various biological activities. It has attracted considerable attention in biomedicine and nanomaterials fields because of its excellent properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity and easy access. In addition, because of active hydroxyl and amino groups in chitosan molecules, different functional groups can be introduced into chitosan molecules by molecular modification or chemical modification, which extends their applications. Nanoparticles with small size and large surface area can be used as diagnostic and therapeutic tools in the biomedical field, which make it easier to understand, detect and treat human diseases. The nanomaterials based on chitosan have important applications in biomedicine, industry, pharmacy, agriculture, and other fields. This review highlights the recent advances on chitosan-based nanoparticles for antibacterial property, drug and gene delivery, cancer and hyperthermia therapy, cell imaging, restorative dentistry, wound healing, tissue engineering and other biomedical fields. The nanotechnology fields involving biosensors, water treatment, food industry and agriculture are also briefly reviewed.

An overview of neonicotinoids: biotransformation and biodegradation by microbiological processes

Neonicotinoids are a class of pesticides widely used in different phases of agricultural crops. Similar to other classes of pesticides, they can damage human and environmental health if overused, and can be resistent to degradation. This is especially relevant to insect health, pollination, and aquatic biodiversity. Nevertheless, application of pesticides is still crucial for food production and pest control, and should therefore be carefully monitored by the government to control or reduce neonicotinoid contamination reaching human and animal feed. Aware of this problem, studies have been carried out to reduce or eliminate neonicotinoid contamination from the environment. One example of a green protocol is bioremediation. This review discusses the most recent microbial biodegradation and bioremediation processes for neonicotinoids, which employ isolated microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), consortiums of microorganisms, and different types of soils, biobeds, and biomixtures.

Complete genome sequence of Janibaecter indicus YB324 from an Atlantic marine sediment

Janibacter indicus YB324, a gram-positive, aerobic and non-motile actinobacterium isolated from south Atlantic sediment at a depth of 2875 m. The complete genome sequence of the strain YB324 was obtained using PacBio Sequel HGAP.4 and comprised of 3,369,845 base pairs with a 71.3 mol% G + C content, 3225 protein-coding genes, 53 RNAs. In silico analysis confirmed the genes associated with polysaccharide hydrolyzation, nitrite reduction, and phenol degradation. Multiple natural product biosynthesis gene clusters were identified as well. The complete genome sequence will provide insight into the potential use of this strain in biotechnological and natural product biosynthesis applications.

Endophytic Penicillium species and their agricultural, biotechnological, and pharmaceutical applications

Penicillium genus constituted by over 200 species is one of the largest and fascinating groups of fungi, particularly well established as a source of antibiotics. Endophytic Penicillium has been reported to colonize their ecological niches and protect their host plant against multiples stresses by exhibiting diverse biological functions that can be exploited for countless applications including agricultural, biotechnological, and pharmaceutical. Over the past 2 decades, endophytic Penicillium species have been investigated beyond their antibiotic potential and numerous applications have been reported. We comprehensively summarized in this review available data (2000-2019) regarding bioactive compounds isolated from endophytic Penicillium species as well as the application of these fungi in multiple agricultural and biotechnological processes. This review has shown that a very large number (131) of endophytes from this genus have been investigated so far and more than 280 compounds exhibiting antimicrobial, anticancer, antiviral, antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, antiparasitics, immunosuppressants, antidiabetic, anti-obesity, antifibrotic, neuroprotective effects, and insecticidal and biocontrol activities have been reported. Moreover, several endophytic Penicillium spp. have been characterized as biocatalysts, plant growth promoters, phytoremediators, and enzyme producers. We hope that this review summarizes the status of research on this genus and will stimulate further investigations.