The AP reports that the FDA “took action Wednesday that will make it easier to get a cheaper, near-copy of a brand-name insulin at the drugstore.” Physicians “now have to specifically prescribe what’s called a biosimilar or OK substituting it for a more expensive brand-name insulin.” The FDA move “will allow pharmacists to automatically substitute the cheaper version, just as they do with generic pills for other kinds of drugs.” The article adds that it is the agency’s “first approval of an ‘interchangeable’ biosimilar, a near-copy of an injected biologic medicine that’s manufactured inside living cells.”

From the news release of the American Association for Justice.