To study doctor’s beliefs, barriers, awareness, and actual practices regarding use of generic medicines

Abstract

Background: Government of India is trying to popularize generic medicines, still most Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) doubt its quality and efficacy. We conducted a cross sectional survey to study the barriers that hinders the practice of writing generic prescriptions. The aim was to study doctor’s knowledge, beliefs and actual practices regarding generic medicines. This study is a KAP survey model (Knowledge, attitude, practices) to study beliefs, barriers, awareness and actual practices regarding use of generic medicines amongst private practioners and RMPs of tertiary care Government hospital in Nanded city.Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted on a sample of 300 randomly selected RMPs practicing in Nanded, Maharashtra. A 26-item questionnaire was designed, validated, and data collected through personal visits. Fisher’s exact test was applied to see associations between variables using Graphpad Prism 7.Results: 234 RMPs responded to the questionnaire i.e. a response rate of 78% was achieved. 107 (45.7%) participants claimed to be actively prescribing generic medicines. 122 (52.1%) of the participants were unaware of any generic medical shop in their locality. 83 (35.5%) participants believed generics to be duplicate/ substandard. However, 16 (19.3%) of them still prescribed generics. One-third of them actually preferred its use for family.Conclusions: RMPs do not accept the use of generic medicines for concerns about its quality and efficacy. Also, there was unawareness regarding availability of generic medicines in the locality. RMPs need to be educated about manufacture, sale and quality aspects of generic medicines in India.

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

“…These results are consistent with studies done by Gupta R, et al, and Desai S et al, where 88% and 80% of participants agreed to it respectively. 10,13 92.1 % of the RMPs disclosed that their prescription is not influenced by advertisements of branded companies which is consistent with a study done by Khadke VV et al 7 Majority (82.3%) of the participants agreed that tax benefits should be given to generic drug manufacturers similar to the study done by Desai S et al, where 80 % of physicians agreed to the statement. 10 In the present study all the practising RMPs opined that they should be educated on generic drugs by means of CMEs.…”

“…These results are comparable to studies done by Gupta SK et al, and Gupta R et al 12,13 This emphasises the role of educational programmes in strengthening the implementation of generic prescribing. 84.9 % of the participants agreed that their prescription is influenced by patient's income status which was similar to the studies done by Khadke VV et al and Desai S et al 7,10 Only 11.8 % of the RMPs agreed that their prescription is influenced by incentives given by branded Companies similar to a study done by Khadke VV et al, where only 3% agreed to it. 7 87.5% of the participants preferred generics for personal/family use in contrast to a study by Khadke VV et al, where only 57 % preferred.…”

“…7 87.5% of the participants preferred generics for personal/family use in contrast to a study by Khadke VV et al, where only 57 % preferred. 7 95.3% of the participants suggested media advertising and publicity on generic drugs similar to studies done by Desai S et al, and Sadiq S et al 3,10…”

“…6 Branded medicines are strongly promoted, and these promotional costs also add to their Maximum Retail Prices (MRP). 7 Generic drugs should be promoted in social and print media so that people become aware of these drugs and use them without any fear. Most of the prescriptions have branded medicines written on them, although prescription guidelines promote generic prescriptions.…”

Medicines shortages in Pakistan: a qualitative study to explore current situation, reasons and possible solutions to overcome the barriers

“…A broad literature review and a Poland study have linked increased prescription rate of particular brand with the monetary benefits gained by practitioners from the pharmaceutical companies 65 66. Likewise, previous studies explained that prescribers were more inclined to prescribe a particular brand because they have concerns about the quality and efficacy of generic medicines and believed branded medicines to be superior than the generics 67 68. Sharif et al also exposed that prescribers in Pakistan also favoured brand medicines and considered generics to be of inferior quality 59.…”