In brief
Because biosimilars and their reference biologic medicine are not identical, whether compared to each other or even between biosimilars, it is important to know which product has been used.
Generics may have some differences from their reference products but generally only in formulation and possibly impurity profiles. For biosimilars the differences occur at the more fundamental level of the active substance. The resulting debate is whether biosimilars should be identified by a variation of the name of the reference biologic product.