A study of knowledge, attitude, and practice on generic drugs among teaching faculties at a tertiary care teaching hospital in South Gujarat, India

Abstract

Background: The practice of generic medicines prescribing, dispensing, and substitution in developing countries has been controversial among doctors, particularly due to issues on quality, safety, and efficacy. These controversies are as a result of country to country differences in drug policies and laws as well as individualized knowledge and attitudes of healthcare professionals related to generic medicines. Moreover, generic medicines in the past have been criticized for being substandard mainly due to poor adherence with good manufacturing practice guidelines. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare knowledge, attitude, and practice of generic drugs among teaching faculties in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out using a questionnaire in a tertiary care teaching hospital in south Gujarat. The questionnaire was designed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice about generic drugs. The medical teachers working in the institute during the study period were included. The data were analyzed by MS Excel. Responses were calculated in percentage. Results: Of all participants, 54% were male and majority and 83% were postgraduate degree holders. It was known to 61.8% faculties that generic drug contains the same active substance(s) as the innovator drug, while 63.2% knew that it is used at the same dose(s) to treat the same disease(s) as the innovator drug. Among faculties, 72% believed the fact that generic drug manufacturers need to conduct bioequivalence studies to show equivalence between the generic and innovator drug. Most of the faculties (75%) did not agree that generic drugs are more costly than their innovator counterpart. Among faculties, 59% had not ever switch a patient on innovator drug to available generic drugs. Only 2% were not in favor of supporting generic drug prescribing. Conclusion: Although a good percentage of medical faculties had knowledge about generic medicines, there was gap on knowledge and perception toward generic and brand drugs. Hence, mass awareness programs seemed to be necessary to fill this gap and that would increase the use of generic drugs which ultimately would reduce healthcare expenditure.