The physician's acceptance and perception of generic medications in private clinics, Shah Alam / Fairuz Khan Mohamed Ali

Aim: The aim of this investigation was to exarrune the acceptance, perception and current attitudes of physicians towards the use of generic medications.
Method: Fifty questionnaires were randomly distributed in district of Shah Alam among physicians in private clinics, with items to characterize their demographics and specific statements to determine their behavior on generics.
Result: Thirty-seven questionnaires were returned completed (74 % response). Most of the responding physicians are involved for many years in private clinics and may have wide experience with medication performances. Eighty-one point one per cent of the responding physicians were mostly prescribing generic medication willingly, indicating that the cheaper cost and the effectiveness of generic substitutes was a significant factor for this trend. They only prefer prescribe generics to patient with less serious disease condition. There were doubts about whether generic medication is bioequivalence to innovator drug. Additionally, 32.4% of the physicians were able to support generic medication plagued with clinical problems and mostly from neuromuscular and cardiovascular generic medications.
Conclusion: It is concluded that while the amendment to the Pharmacy Act encourages the substitution to generics, more emphasis should be placed on improving physician confidence in the bioequivalence and therapeutic equivalence of generic medications.