Understanding and perceptions of final-year Doctor of Pharmacy students about generic medicines in Karachi, Pakistan: a quantitative insight

Abstract

General objective

To evaluate the understanding and perceptions of generic medicines among final-year Doctor of Pharmacy students in Karachi, Pakistan.

Methods

A 23-item survey instrument that included a question on the bioequivalence limits and Likert-type scale questions regarding the understanding and perceptions of generic medicines among the students was executed. Cronbach’s alpha was found to be 0.62.

Results

Responses were obtained from 236 final-year Doctor of Pharmacy students (n=85 from a publicly funded institute; n=151 from a privately funded institute). When comparing a brand-name medicine to a generic medicine, pharmacy students scored poorly on bioequivalence limits. More than 80% of the students incorrectly answered that all the products that are rated as generic equivalents are therapeutically equivalent to each other (P<0.04). Half of the students agreed that a generic medicine is bioequivalent to the brand-name medicine (P<0.001). With regard to quality, effectiveness, and safety, more than 75% of the students disagreed that generic medicines are of inferior quality and are less effective than brand-name medicines (P<0.001). More than 50% of the students disagreed that generic medicines produce more side effects than brand-name medicines (P<0.001).

Conclusion

The current study identified a positive perception toward generic medicines but also gaps in the understanding of generic medicines. Pharmacy students lacked a thorough understanding of the concepts of bioequivalence. Pharmacy academia should address these issues, which will help build confidence in generic medicines and increase the generic medicine use in Pakistan.

Keywords:

• safety
• curriculum
• efficacy

Disclosure

All the authors hereby declare that are no actual or potential conflicts of interest including any personal, financial, or other relationships with other people or organizations within 3 years of beginning the work submitted that could inappropriately influence or bias the work. The authors hereby declare that Universiti Sains Malaysia provided a grant only to collect the data and was not in any way involved in the study design, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of article, or submission of the article to the journal.