Join your pharmacy colleagues for Hospital Pharmacy Europe’s next Virtual Study Day series, which returns next month for a day of learning and discussion addressing the practical realities of biosimilar implementation across the multidisciplinary team (MDT).
This free, CPD-accredited event on 4 March 2026 brings together nationally recognised experts to tackle one of the most complex challenges in medicines optimisation today: the safe, effective and sustainable use of biosimilars throughout the NHS.
The event will provide authoritative insights into clinically safe and efficient biosimilar switching, adverse event management, and the practical realities of implementation across secondary, primary, paediatric and homecare settings.
Attendees will acquire practical tools to support high-risk switching, minimise disease flare-ups and strengthen governance at each stage of the patient pathway.
The day will also look ahead to planning for the future, offering forward-looking intelligence emerging trends in biosimilar use across hospital services, building confidence and competence with new options and preparing for future biosimilar developments and innovation.
With considerable NHS policy changes coming later in 2026, it’s more important than ever to effectively navigate prescribing, switching strategies and optimise leadership and MDT working in this area.
If you’re involved in biologics, biosimilars, medicines governance or system transformation, this event offers knowledge you can apply immediately in your practice, along with the insight needed to prepare for the future of value-based biologic use in the NHS.
Biosimilars programme highlights
The biosimilars virtual study day chair Andrew Pothecary, lead pharmacist, rheumatology and biologics at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, will kick off the event by setting out the strategic and clinical context for the day before introducing the first session, which will examine the current state of UK practice around biologics and biosimilars in a session titled ‘Seamless switching or silent substitution’.
Kicking off the day’s main agenda Aya Alomari, lead pharmacist of biologics and homecare at Harrogate District Hospital will focus on clinical risk and patient confidence, equipping attendees with evidence-based approaches to support, optimise and improve local biosimilar use.
Her session will consider the evolving role of pharmacists in biosimilar optimisation and system leadership, examine whether brand prescribing has clinical significance and, if so, when it matters most. She will also address how safe switching can be managed across secondary care, primary care and homecare without fragmentation.
Strategies for identifying high-risk patients, minimising disease flare and understanding what real-world evidence reveals about how biosimilars are used compared with generics will also be highlighted for attendees to consider to optimise their own practice.
Paediatrics and the use of biosimilars
Soni Bhatt, highly specialist paediatric pharmacist at Evelina Children’s Hospital, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, joins the line up to reinforce that children are not small adults and her session will therefore provide safeguards for the responsible application of biosimilar policy in paediatric populations.
It will outline which biosimilars are currently approved and used in UK paediatrics, explore differences in pharmacokinetics, dosing ranges and immunogenicity in children and clarify when switching is appropriate and when it is not.
The session will also explain how National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance applies to paediatric biologics and present practical switching examples in inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatology and dermatology.
Managing adverse events
Kalveer Flora, lead pharmacist biosimilars at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, will focus on clinical vigilance and supporting safer practice to protect patients.
She will give attendees the confidence to manage clinical complexity rather than defaulting to treatment reversal and to distinguish actual adverse events using recognised clinical indicators and UK guidance. She will also focus on the development of a systematic approach to adverse event management during and after switching.
The session will also cover best practice for documentation, follow-up and multidisciplinary team escalation; clarify when to involve immunology, undertake repeat drug-level testing or justify switching back; and explore how to implement a local exceptionality process.
With countless insights to help support your practice, and an opportunity to secure a planned CPD learning activity for your revalidation, it’s not to be missed.
Register now for free to join us for this Biosimilars Virtual Study Day on 4 March.