As the current supplement of the Kidney and Blood Pressure Research is dedicated to many aspects of the manufacturing, immunogenicity, regulations and clinical use of biosimilars, we decided to concentrate our attention only on the potential opportunities and risks of the introduction of biosimilars into clinical practice in the former Communist countries of the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) which are now the members of the European Union (EU). In addition, as nephrologists we will discuss the relationship between health care and biosimilar use in renal medicine, although similar problems may be partly applicable to other branches of medicines using biopharmaceuticals, e.g. oncology and rheumatology.