Is There a Relationship Between Patient Beliefs or Communication About Generic Drugs and Medication Utilization?

Abstract

Background-Insurers and policymakers strive to stimulate more cost-effective prescribing and, increasingly, are educating beneficiaries about generics.

Patients’ attitudes towards generic drug substitution in Japan

“…CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratios reflecting the likelihood of willingness for generic drug; substitutions "yes" versus "no/I do not know"; because of the respondents failing to give the information on this matter, total samples were 794. a This group served as the reference group. b Indicates significance at p = 0.05. cation between health providers and patients will lead to the patients' acceptance of generic drug substitution [14,19,21], as long as health providers have the correct understanding of generic drugs. The attitudes of health professionals are independent on health policies already implemented in Japan and there are few studies on physicians' and pharmacists' attitudes towards generic drug substitution in Japan.…”

Consumer Choice Between Common Generic and Brand Medicines in a Country with a Small Generic Market

“…28 When consumers believe that the effectiveness of generic medicines is less than their original brand equivalents, they are less likely to accept generic medicines or generic substitution. 19,27,29 Additionally, older consumers and those with lower levels of education are less likely to accept generic substitution. 30,31 This seems to be no different in other countries with a small generic market share, such as Portugal.…”

“…Some might consider generic substitution the ultimate way for increasing generic medicine use and containing pharmaceutical expenditures. 19,20 However, generic …”

Payers endorse generics to enhance prescribing efficiency: impact and future implications, a case history approach

“…However, there are concerns with the effectiveness and tolerability of generics compared with originator drugs [3,7,24,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37], with some originator companies questioning the quality of generics as part of their marketing strategies to reduce the erosion of sales which follow patent loss [38]. Whilst these concerns typically only apply to a minority of situations [34,36,39], as demonstrated for instance by 'dispense as written' prescriptions only accounting for 2.7% of prescriptions written by physicians in the US [30], failure by health authorities, physicians and pharmacists to adequately address these concerns will mean reduced savings in reality [3-5, 17, 40].…”