A SURVEY BASED STUDY IN CURRENT SCENARIO OF GENERIC AND BRANDED MEDICINES

摘要

Objectiv es: Cost of the medicines is a concern for the patients. Within India cost of medicines var ies, t he basic reason behind this is the brand pr ice quoted by the pharmaceutical industries. Survey w as undert aken to rev iew and analys e var ious facts about branded and generic medicines of t he same dr ugs. Method: By s urvey of Jan Aushadhi Stor es pr ice list and other resources by the authors it is found that t here is a v ast difference between prices of br anded and generic medicines. Furt her s urvey was conducted for follow ing t arget groups and indiv iduals . The groups ar e Lit erate population (science background), Common public (educated but non science background) and Practicing Pharmacist s. The different sets of questionnaire wer e pr epared for each group and surv ey was conducted. The questions w ere designed as to check aw areness, knowledge and preference of medication. Results: The highlighting res ults of this survey based project are that more number of consumers want economic alt ernat ive to the brand medicines which includes per sons with or without science background, a remarkable number of consumers does not have know ledge about generic medicines, most of the physicians do not prefer generic medicines and most of the practicing pharmacist s hav e very less business through generic medicines. Conclus ion: Even if generic medicines are going to be made available free of cost at the gov ernment hospit als the war of prices betw een b randed and generic may not stop. More str ingent rules and regulation are required for making t he dr ugs available at reasonable cost for the masses. For t he benefit of the patients, if pharmacist needs to change a brand for gener ic medicine, should be per mitted by law.