AIM To descriptively analyze the policy environment surrounding the Polish generic medicines retail market. METHOD The policy analysis was based on an international literature review. Also, a simulation exercise was carried out to compute potential savings from substituting generic for originator medicines in Poland using IMS Health pharmaceutical intelligence data. RESULTS Poland has a mat...

The study was carried out to evaluate community pharmacists' and drug retailers' knowledge and perceptions about generic medicines. A cross-sectional descriptive study, with a questionnaire, was conducted to survey community pharmacists and drug retailers working in 39 randomly selected private pharmacies from two towns of Tamil Nadu, India. Among 66 respondents (pharmacists and drug retailers)...

Intr oduction Generic medicines are a key instrument for governments to sustain their healthcare systems and control pharmaceutical expenditures. This contribution of generic medicines to the sustainability of European healthcare systems has been recognised by the High Level Pharmaceutical Forums, ‘Generic medicines provide an opportunity to obtain similar treatments at lower costs for patients...

Promoting generic medicines to increase access to essential medicines is relevant to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) and post 2015 goals. There are several barriers to encouraging wider use of generic medicines in health systems, e.g. the widely-held perception that low price equals low quality and misalignment of provider and consumer incentives. Overcoming the complex barriers ...

1 who work for the industry-funded Hudson Institute, advocate the use of patented drugs, pointing to what they say are risks associated with generic drugs. They confuse generic drugs with old, substandard, ineffective, and counterfeit drugs. Generic does not mean old. The 1996 World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreements mandate all member countries to provide 20-year patent protection for medicin...

UNLABELLED Generic medicines can generate larger savings to health care budgets when their use is supported by incentives on both the supply-side and the demand-side. Pharmacists''remuneration is one factor influencing the dispensing of generic medicines. OBJECTIVE The aim of this article is to provide an overview of different pharmacist remuneration systems for generic medicines in Europe, w...

A generic medicine is an equivalent of an originator pharmaceutical product. It contains the same active substance as, is "essentially similar" to, and is therefore interchangeable with, the originator product. The objective of this study was to determine the share of generic medicines of the total received marketing authorization applications in Croatia, and the specificities in the approval o...