Open AccessGeneric drugs: Review and experiences from South India
Author(s) -
Philip Mathew
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of family medicine and primary care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2278-7135
pISSN - 2249-4863
DOI - 10.4103/2249-4863.161305
Subject(s) - medicine , pharmacy , innovator , medical prescription , access to medicines , health care , generic drug , marketing , drug , business , family medicine , pharmacology , nursing , economic growth , finance , entrepreneurship , economics , public health
The cost of pharmaceuticals, as a percentage of total healthcare spending, has been rising worldwide. This has resulted in strained national budgets and a high proportion of people without access to essential medications. Though India has become a global hub of generic drug manufacturing, the expected benefits of cheaper drugs are not translating into savings for ordinary people. This is in part due to the rise of branded generics, which are marketed at a price point close to the innovator brands. Unbranded generic medicines are not finding their way into prescriptions due to issues of confidence and perception, though they are proven to be much cheaper and comparable in efficacy to branded medicines. The drug inventory of unbranded generic manufacturers fares reasonably when reviewed using the World Health Organization-Health Action International (WHO-HAI) tool for analysing drug availability. Also, unbranded generic medicines are much cheaper when compared to the most selling brands and they can bring down the treatment costs in primary care and family practice. We share our experience in running a community pharmacy for an urban health center in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala State, which is run solely on generic medicines. The drug availability at the community pharmacy was 73.3% when analyzed using WHO-HAI tool and the savings for the final consumers were up to 93.1%, when compared with most-selling brand of the same formulation.