AWARENESS OF GENERIC DRUGS AMONG MEDICALPRACTITIONERS AND PATIENTS: LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Background. In the modern world, the costs of medicines are very high. One of the measures to reduce the cost of
health care - the use of generic drugs. Substitution of the original/reference/patented drug on generic is practiced in most
countries and allows you to spend budget funds effectively and improves access to drugs for all patients. However, low
awareness and unwillingness of medical workers to prescribe generics can negatively affect the rational use of substitutes
for generics.

Aim of the study. to analyze published data regarding the awareness of generic drugs among medical staff and
patients.
Search strategy. Search for scientific publications in the search engines such as PubMed, Cochrane Library,
GoogleScholar, in the electronic scientific library eLibrary.ru, CyberLeninka. Inclusion criteria: publications of Kazakhstan
authors, as well as scientific works from the near and far abroad; the search depth was 10 years (2010-2020). The study was
carried out by next keywords search: generic drugs, awareness, questionnaire, prescription substitution. The review included
the results of cross-sectional studies and systematic reviews. More than 1200 publications were analyzed, 59 works were
included in the analysis.
Results. awareness of generic drugs among medical staff and patients remains unsatisfactory. This is due to many
factors, among which the main ones are the low level of knowledge of doctors about the concept of bioequivalence, as well
as doubts about the efficacy, safety and tolerability of the drug.
Conclusions. Adequate measures should be taken to increase public awareness of generic drugs.