Community pharmacists’ perceptions towards generic medicines and their opinions on future generic substitution policy implementation: A descriptive study from Jordan

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore Jordanian pharmacists’ perceptions towards generic medicines as well as to evaluate their opinions on generic substitution in order to introduce a future generic substitution policy in Jordan. A cross-sectional descriptive study involving community pharmacists in Amman-Jordan was undertaken, using a self-completed anonymous questionnaire. The sampling unit was community pharmacy, and the sampling frame was list of community pharmacies in Amman (N = 1252). Five hundred pharmacies were randomly selected to participate in this survey, and 294 pharmacists’ responses were collected giving a response rate of 58.8%. The majority of Jordanian pharmacists had a positive view on generic medicines in general with 87.7% of the respondents believing that a generic medicine is bio-equivalents to the originator. Two hundred and sixty-five pharmacists (90.1%) were in favour of implementing a compulsory generic prescribing policy. More than 80% of the pharmacists supported generic substitution in most cases. Generic substitution policy should be implemented; in addition, a formulary of interchangeable medicines must be developed to guide pharmacists’ decision making when performing generic substitution. Jordanian pharmacists were also in favour of introducing a compulsory generic prescribing legislation; however, such policy may have a negative impact on the local industry, as most of the produced medicines are branded generics.

Keywords

Generic medicines generic substitution community pharmacist perception policy

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