A Study on the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Generic Medicines among the Doctors in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in South India

Background: The assessment of doctor’s perceptions and understanding about generic medicines may help in recognizing possible barriers to greater generic medicine usage. Aims & Objective: The primary objective of this study was to explore the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of doctors toward generic medicines. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out using a pretested questionnaire in a tertiary-care teaching hospital of Perambalur district of Tamil Nadu (India). The questionnaire was designed to assess the KAP about generic medicines. The doctors working in this institute during the study period were included. All data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS, version 16.0). p-Values of <0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance. Results: It was known to 76.7% doctors that a generic medicine contains the same active substance(s) as the innovator medicine, and it is used at the same dose(s) to treat the same disease(s) as the innovator medicine (p = 0.000). Among doctors, 79.5% were aware that generic drug manufacturers need to conduct bioequivalence studies to show equivalence between the generic medicine and the innovator medicine (p = 0.0000); 75.3% doctors did not agree that generics are not as safe as innovator drugs (p = 0.0000). Moreover, 64.4% doctor did not agree that generics are not as effective as brandname drugs (p = 0.0123); 71.2% doctors do not think that switching a patient from a brand-name to generic drug may change the outcome of the therapy (p = 0.0002). Sixty-three percent doctors said that they prescribe generic drugs (p = 0.0243). Conclusion: Good percentage of doctors had knowledge about generic medicines. They showed good attitude about the safety, efficacy and quality of generic medicines, and majority of them said that they prescribe generic drugs. But there was a meaningful proportion who expressed concerns about generic drugs. These beliefs could represent a significant hurdle to larger generic drug use and could lead to increased health-care expenses.