Disadvantages Of Generic Medicine

Improving access to affordable, quality medicines, particularly to the world’s poorest, is part of the strategy to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases [1]. However, the high price of medicines is a significant barrier for access to medicines, particularly in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). Thus, use of generic medicines is essential because they significantly reduce the cost of medicines to both governments and the patients [2]. In fact, generic competition can lower the price of medicines by as much as 90% [3]. By definition, a generic medicine is a medicine produced without a licence from the innovator company when the patent or other market exclusivity rights on the innovator product has expired [4].

Generic prescribing is when a physician or a prescriber writes an order for a medicine or treatment using the international non-proprietary name (INN) for the drug and generic substitution is dispensing any available formulation of the same drug in the place of the prescribed branded formulation. In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, generic prescribing is permitted in two-thirds and is mandatory in a few countries such as Estonia, Portugal, Spain and France [5]. Similarly, generic substitution occurs in the majority of the OECD countries and is mandatory in some countries such as Denmark, Finland, Spain, Sweden and