The Australian Generic Medicines Industry Association (GMiA) and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia announced on 22 March 2013 the launch of a joint initiative: Why choose generic medicines?
Although the Pharmacy Guild of Australia has in the past not agreed with calls for ‘enforced’ generics substitution, the organization is supporting this joint initiative with GMiA to encourage substitution.
The initiative was announced by GMiA at the Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s Annual National Conference (APP2013), which was held on 21–24 March 2013. GMiA CEO, Ms Kate Lynch said that ‘the initiative is all about delivering high quality information to the consumer by their pharmacist. The GMiA and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia have developed important materials for pharmacists to use in their pharmacy with their customer.’
Australians are already very positive towards generic medicines, according to Ms Lynch, with 82% of Australians agreeing that a generic medicine is ‘a product I know and trust’.
However, despite this positive attitude, Australians still prefer brand-name drugs rather than generic medicines (2:1), revealing a discrepancy between patients having a favourable view of generics and actually choosing a generic medicine.
Australians are also more likely to think brand-name rather than generic medicines are ‘high quality’ (94% brand-name, 81% generics) and ‘meet Australian standards of safety and effectiveness’ (92% brand-name, 79% generics).
This initiative has therefore been launched to provide pharmacists with high quality information that they can give to their patients in order to inform them about generics and encourage their use. Ms Lynch concluded that ‘the more quality information that consumers have about generic medicines, the more likely they are to choose a generic medicine.’
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