Perception on generic drugs among general populace visiting a community pharmacy Jaipur, Rajasthan

Abstract

Healthcare costs have been leading cause of poverty for many Indians. One of the solutions to this is to advocate generic drugs which are cheaper in comparison to brand name drugs. The government of India had made it mandatory for physicians to use only generic names while prescribing. This study was conducted to analyze the perception of general public in Jaipur, Rajasthan towards generic drugs. A simple close ended questionnaire was administered to selected participants visiting a community pharmacy over a period of 3 months. Patients were asked about their opinions on effectiveness and government promotion of generic substitutions. In the study consisting of 100 participants 92 of them had heard of generic drugs while 76% knew the difference between generic and branded drugs. 47.8% believed that brand name drugs were more effective than generic while 34.7% believed in lower quality of generic drugs. Only 30.4% of participants were aware of government’s efforts to promote generic drugs. 65% confirmed that they would prefer a generic drug only if it were recommended by a physician and not a pharmacist. Majority of participants had their primary source of information as social media. The result from study suggests that in order to reduce overall healthcare costs of Indians the government must ensure to include all healthcare professionals with physicians as primary informer and also include campaigns through social Medias.
 Keywords: Healthcare costs, generic drugs, branded drugs, community pharmacy