Abstract
BackgroundIn 2012, a new pharmaceutical policy was introduced in Korea. According to the new policy, off-patent brand-name drugs (original drugs) and generic drugs must be priced the same.MethodsThis study aims to investigate the perception and attitude of Korean physicians towards generic drugs before and after the policy reform. Surveys were conducted with registered doctors at the Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA) twice, in 2011 and 2013, by means of email and HIRA online survey systems.ResultsIn the 2011 survey, 82% knew about the bioequivalent (BE) guideline, whereas only 25.7% trusted BE testing results. More than half preferred original drugs to generic drugs because of clinical experience and generic drugs confidence limits. 64.2% pointed out that the Korean generic drugs prices are more expensive than in other counties. In the 2013 survey, 73% preferred original drugs to generic drugs because of believed difference in drug effectiveness. After the pricing policy reform, 35.5% stated that they didn’t change their prescribing pattern, whereas 29.7% stated that they began prescribing generic drugs.ConclusionsThe Korean government has revised and strengthen the guideline on BE test to improve the quality and confidence of generic drugs. Although generic drugs prescription was increased slightly more than the 2011 survey, 2013 survey showed that around 70% of respondents still preferred original drugs.
Highlights
In 2012, a new pharmaceutical policy was introduced in Korea
When the doctors were asked whether bio-equivalent generic drugs were therapeutically equivalent to original drugs, over half of the respondents (n = 192, 53.2%) believed there was a difference in the safety and effectiveness between generic drugs and original drugs, whereas 17.5% stated that generic drugs were therapeutically equivalent to original drug and the rest remained neutral (Table 2)
The main reason for the lack of confidence in generic drugs was physicians’ clinical experience (32%) and the second reason was the lack of confidence in the BE testing results (26%)
Summary
In 2012, a new pharmaceutical policy was introduced in Korea. In 2013, health spending (excluding investment expenditure in the health sector) accounted for 6.9% of the GDP in Korea, still well below the average of 8.9% in OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries [1]. Between 2008 and 2013, growth in health expenditures was 1.1%, which is higher than the OECD average of 0.6% [2]. As of 2013, the pharmaceutical expenditure rate of Korea was 20.6% of the total health expenditure higher than the OECD average of 16.6%, and ranked 7th among the 34 countries [1]. A major concern of the Korean government is controlling pharmaceutical expenditures.
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