Study of knowledge, attitude, and practice of prescribing generic medicines by healthcare providers in tertiary care teaching hospital-BRIMS, Bidar

Introduction: Medicines play an important role in decreasing morbidity and mortality. But due to high cost factor achievement of good healthcare at door step has become impossible. Generic medicines are cost effective without compromising the quality. Aims and Objectives: To evaluate knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of generic medicines among the prescribers in a tertiary care teaching hospital -BRIMS, Bidar. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional, observational, and questionnaire-based study. A 14-item multiple choice questionnaires were distributed to the participants to assess their KAP regarding generic medicine. Results: About 61.22% participants agreed that generic medicines differ from their innovator brand name drug in nature of excipients. 81.63% interns agreed that cost of generic medicines is lesser than the innovator brand name drugs. 81.63% interns agreed there should be a training program to increase the awareness regarding generic medicines among doctors. 31.61% interns stated that generic medicines can be switched over to the brand name drugs and vice versa. About 87.75% interns were ready to encourage patients to use generic medicines. Conclusion: In the present study, we found that interns had good knowledge about generic medicines and Jan Aushadhi Yojana. Educational programmes like training, seminars, Continues Medical Education (CME) can increase the significance of generic medicine prescription. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude and Practice, Generic Medicines.