The State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Senate committee reviewed and approved updates to the March 2025 pharmacy formulary and accompanying medical drug recommendations, moving several biosimilars onto the formulary and reclassifying select medications, a division director said.

Grant Wallace, director of the Employee Benefits Division, told the committee that the changes are largely routine and aim to favor lower-cost biosimilars. He said that Yaxentik and three other entries listed on the agenda are biosimilars for Stelara and that the committee intends to roll the biosimilars onto the formulary in place of the Stelara brand-name product. "What you'll see on here is pretty much a normal, review, and movement of some of the medications," Wallace said.

Wallace told members that the biosimilars are expected to take effect around June 1. He also explained why the committee presented both pharmacy and medical items: Stelara and its biosimilars begin as an IV infusion on the medical side and later move to the pharmacy side, so both lists must be updated to ensure coverage across settings. The agenda also included a reclassification of a mid-page entry; the presenter did not specify the full reclassification text during the discussion.

Committee members raised no questions on the formulary items. The chair announced that both the pharmacy formulary (Exhibit C-1) and the medical drug recommendations were "reviewed and approved" without objection and then moved the meeting on to the next agenda topic.