Assessment of awareness on generic drugs among health care professionals and laypersons

Abstract

Background: In the present day world the expenditure on medicines is very high. Most of the people in developing countries find it difficult to afford expensive medicines. One of the measures to cut down the expenditure on medicines is to use generic drugs. Hence the study was taken up to know the awareness, attitude and preference for generic drugs among medical and non medical persons.Methods: The study was done on 290 participants. 60 medical interns, 30 doctors, 50 nurses, 50 non medical staff (clerks and attenders) and 100 patients were included. They were given a questionnaire to know the awareness and knowledge on generic drugs, willingness to prescribe (among doctors) and use it (non medical staff and patients).Results: This study showed that all medical persons- doctors, interns and nurses knew about generic drugs whereas 60% of non medical staff and 95% of the patients were not aware about it. All doctors had good knowledge about generic drugs and 80% prescribed it always. 70% of the patients depended on what doctors prescribed for them and never asked for generic/ branded drugs in particular. 70% non medical staff preferred it only sometimes.Conclusions: The awareness among non medical persons is poor than medical persons among the surveyed population. Hence adequate measures should be taken to increase awareness and knowledge among public so that they become imperative enough to ask their doctors to prescribe generic drugs.

Generic drugs: a study on awareness among medical students and interns

“…In this study 99 (76.2%) students and 48 (71.6%) interns think that generic drugs are as safe as branded drugs, whereas in a study done by Sahana et al shows that most of the doctors (90%) and interns believe that generic drugs are as safe as branded drugs (75%). 27 In our study 98 (75.4%) students understood that generic drugs are non-inferior to branded drugs in efficacy compared to interns 33 (49.3%), whereas in another study suggest that 54% students disagreed that generic medicines are of inferior quality to brand-name medicines. 28 Most of interns felt that advertisement by the drug companies would influence the utilization of brand-name medicine and even significant proportion of doctors, pharmacists and lay people hold negative perceptions of generic medicines.…”

“…26 As health-care cost is increasing as a result of the increased cost of medicines, use of generic medicine which is affordable is being validated by policy-makers worldwide. 27 Hence, it is important to educate and guide medical students about cost-effective use of medicine. 28 There is strong misconception among medical fraternity that any drug which is expensive is better compared to a drug that is affordable, which is quite disgraceful.…”

Knowledge, attitude and practices regarding generic medicines and its usage: a community-based study

“…23 The awareness was found to be more in comparison to a study done by Hebbar et al (5%). 24 The awareness regarding generic drugs was reported to be 99.6%, by Lira et al, due to the introduction of generic drugs nearly two decades ago. 22 With respect to usage of generic drugs, 132 (11.5%) respondents or their family members had taken generic drugs in past and only 157 (13.6%) usually purchased generic medicines.…”

Knowledge, attitude and practices of rural medical practitioners on generic medicines

“…10,11 This is in contrast to the study done by Hebbar SK et al, which stated that only 5% of laypersons were aware. 1 Majority of the participants were aware that generic drugs have same active content as their branded counterparts in consistence with the study done by Gupta SK et al, on doctors (76.7%). 12 Most of them agree that these drugs are not inferior or duplicate, are of same efficacy with no more side effects and are available at affordable prices compared to their branded counterparts.…”

“…The generic drug is defined as a medication that is produced freely after expiry of the patent protecting the branded product, necessarily being similar to the reference drug in bioequivalence in order to obtain the same therapeutic effect. 1 Since generic drug manufacturers do not have to spend extra money for drug discovery, pre-clinical and clinical trials, generics are generally cheaper than brands. Since generics are availableat a lower cost, they provide an opportunity for savings in drug expenditure without reducing the quality.…”