Attitudes of Physicians and Pharmacists Towards International Non‐Proprietary Name Prescribing in Belgium

Abstract

International Non-proprietary Name (INN) prescribing is the use of the name of the active ingredient(s) instead of the brand name for prescribing. In Belgium, INN prescribing began in 2005 and a major policy change occurred in 2012. The aim was to explore the opinions of Dutch-speaking general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists. An electronic questionnaire with 39 five-point Likert scale statements and one open question was administered in 2013. Multivariate analysis was performed with multiple linear regression on a sum score for benefit statements and for drawback statements. Answers to the open question were qualitatively analysed. We received 745 valid responses with a representable sample for both subgroups. Participants perceived the motives to introduce INN prescribing as purely economic (to reduce pharmaceutical expenditures for the government and the patient). Participants accepted the concept of INN prescribing, but 88% stressed the importance of guaranteed treatment continuity, especially in older, chronic patients, to prevent patient confusion, medication non-adherence and erroneous drug use. In conclusion, the current way in which INN prescribing is applied in Belgium leads to many concerns among primary health professionals about patient confusion and medication adherence. Slightly adapting the current concept of INN prescribing to these concerns can turn INN prescribing into one of the major policies in Belgium to reduce pharmaceutical expenditures and to stimulate rational drug prescribing.

Evaluation of Prescribing Indicators in a Paediatric Population Seen in an Outpatient Consultation at the Gaspard Kamara Health Centre in 2019 (Senegal)

“…However, prescribing INN drugs has certain benefits. A survey in Belgium showed that it reduced government and patient spending on pharmaceuticals and that patients even perceive INN prescribing as a way to help rationalize prescribing [ 31 ]. It also reduces the risk of confusion during dispensing [ 32 ] and facilitates communication between health professionals [ 8 ].…”

Unintentional Pharmaceutical‐Related Medication Errors Caused by Laypersons Reported to the Toxicological Information Centre in the Czech Republic

“…Further causes of errors included mixing up medications by the laypersons, who were sometimes disabled due to psychiatric diagnosis/senility, or the administration of two medicinal products containing the same substance which was usually due to a misunderstanding between the parents unlike in other countries where frequent switching of medicines in the pharmacy and consequent confusion of patients is associated with International Non‐proprietary Name prescription policy introduced by governments in some EU countries .…”

Prescribers’ and dispensers' views about generic medicines and international non-proprietary name prescribing – a mixed methods study in Portugal

“…The questionnaire design was inspired elsewhere (Bearden and Mason, 1979; Dunne et al , 2014b. ; Bever et al , 2015) although new questions were introduced to accommodate for specificities of the Portuguese pharmaceutical market. Each questionnaire had three parts.…”

“…There is a growing international literature on the attitudes of physicians, pharmacists and/or patients toward generic medicines (Hassali et al , 2009; Colgan et al , 2015; Dunne and Dunne, 2015; Toverud et al , 2015; Dunne, 2016, for reviews), and also many country-specific studies: Portugal (Figueiras et al , 2008; Quintal and Mendes, 2012; Ferreira and Barbosa, 2017); Australia (Chong et al , 2011); Italy (Fabiano et al , 2012); Belgium (Bever et al , 2015); Irland (Dunne et al , 2014a, 2014b); Malasia (Chua et al , 2010); Bosnia and Herzegovina (Čatic et al , 2017); Jordan (El-Dahiyat et al , 2014); Greece (Karampli et al , 2016); Palestine (Shraim et al , 2017); India (Zaverbhai et al , 2017); Turkish (Toklu et al , 2012); Finland (Heikkilä et al , 2011); Saudi Arabia (Salhia et al , 2015); Nigeria (Auta et al , 2014; Fadare et al , 2016); Norway (Kjoenniksen et al , 2006); Japan (Kobayashi et al , 2011), France (Riner et al , 2017). The results seem to indicate that, although generic medicine use has become more widespread, many health professionals and patients hold negative perceptions of generic medicines.…”

“…Do prescribers have different views about generic medicines and INN than dispensers? To the best of our knowledge, only one study has evaluated the opinions of health professionals toward INN prescribing (Bever et al , 2015). An assessment and comparison of the opinions of Portuguese health-care professionals directly involved is not only novel, but also timely.…”