Journal of Pharmacovigilance

A study on the Knowledge, attitude and practice of generic medicines among the doctors in a tertiary care teaching hospital in north east India

11^th International Conference and Exhibition on Pharmacovigilance & Drug Safety

June 21-22, 2018 | London, UK

Sarkar Chayna

NEIGRIHMS, India

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Pharmacovigil

Abstract:

Prescription drug spending is increasing and out-of-pocket expenses 80% of total health-care expenditures. Generic drugs are typically less expensive than brand-name drugs with same therapeutic effect but many doctors hold negative views of generics and resist prescribing. To evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of doctors regarding generic medicines and to explore the factors hindering and favoring generic drug prescribed if any. It is a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study in a tertiary-care teaching hospital. All doctors working in the hospital during the study period were participated and filled up the structured and pre-validated questionnaires and analyzed. Close to three quarters of the participants had good attitude about the efficacy and safety of generic and majority of doctors actively prescribe it but a high number of doctors (72%) were of the view that generic were manufactured to the poorer quality but cheaper than brand name drugs. The majority of respondents believed that their prescribing decision is influenced by lots of factors. These results suggest that there are a significant number doctors concerns about the quality of generics and this negative perceptions are likely to be barriers to a wider acceptance of generics, In order to have a better understanding of generic, the doctor must be well-informed about the generic during their academic career resulting in savings to healthcare budgets.