Leveraging consumer's behaviour to promote generic drugs in Italy

Attitude and Purchase Intention to Generic Drugs

Generic drugs were instituted in 1984 in the United States. Since that time, many studies have been conducted in several countries into consumer attitude and behavior when purchasing generic drugs. Understanding the factors that can influence attitude and purchasing intention in this segment has been a challenge. Thus, this paper aims to present a mapping of the literature on the attitude toward and intention to purchase generic drugs and capture insights that can help define and improve promotional strategies for the use of these products. To identify articles related to the theme, we selected the Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, Lilacs, Pubmed Central, Springer, and Embase databases time limited to June 2020, using the keywords “generic drug”, “purchase intention”, and “attitude”. The results indicate that this topic is relatively new, with publications in the leading journals in the area demonstrating its importance. Analysis revealed five strategic insights and showed that the research theme could be grouped into three clusters: (i) consumer attitude and behavior, (ii) perspective of patients and health professionals, and (iii) assessment of the risks associated with generic medications to determine which factors can influence purchase intention, providing decision makers with a broader view with regard to directing public policy strategies in healthcare.

Prescribing Behavior of General Practitioners for Generic Drugs

The factors influencing General Practitioners’ (GPs) prescribing behavior are diverse in terms of health care policies and regulations, GPs’ education and experience, demographic trends and disease profiles. Thus, it can be useful to analyze the specific local patterns, as they affect the quality of healthcare and the stability of the healthcare market. The aim of the present longitudinal retrospective study is to investigate the prescription of generic drugs in a database of about 4.6 million prescriptions from a sample of 38 GPs practicing in Salerno, Italy, within a timeframe of 15 years, from 2001 to 2015. The GPs in our study show a general tendency to increase prescriptions of generic drugs during the studied time span, to fulfill regulatory obligations and with some differences in prescription behavior according to age, gender and experience. The generics prescription depends also on the different diagnoses, with some diagnostic areas showing a greater generic drug prescription rate. Expanding this research to larger datasets would allow deepening the knowledge of the patterns of GPs’ prescribing decisions, to provide evidence to be used in comparison between different national settings.

The Portuguese generic medicines market: What's next?

Brand-name medicines have dominated the Portuguese market for several decades with unquestionable exclusivity. This resulted particularly from the absence of a requirement of prescriptions by international non-proprietary name. To promote the enhancement of both efficiency and sustainability in the health system, the Portuguese government introduced the generics in Portugal by the 90 s. However, only in the first decade of the 21^st century were some policies implemented to increase their market share. Although some expectations were created, the use of generics has increased moderately during that period, in which policies to promote them were consolidated by imposing the austerity principles in the midst of the economic and social crisis. This study analyses the main policy measures already implemented as well as the incentives created for the replacement of brand-name medicines with generics. In addition, the present study also makes some recommendations to promote a broader and better use of generics in Portugal.

Using the theory of planned behavior and self-identity to explore women's decision-making and intention to switch from combined oral contraceptive pill (COC) to long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC)

Background

\Most college women use the combined oral contraceptive pill (COC) despite more effective long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods (e.g., IUDs and implant) being available. Resistance to change methods may be impacted by how a woman identifies with being a COC-user.

Methods

Data were collected via 186 web-based surveys distributed to female students attending a university in the southeastern United States (Mean age = 20.0 ± 1.; range = 18–22). Structural equation modeling (SEM) determined TPB fit in understanding LARC intention.

Results

SEM results received acceptable fit (χ2 (670, N = 186) p < 0.01, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) of 0.84, and Normative Fit Index (NFI) of 0.75). A Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) of 0.09 was produced, with a 90% confidence interval of 0.08 to 0.09. Including self-identity in the model yielded similar fit, with χ2 (866, N = 186) p < 0.01, CFI of 0.83, and NFI of 0.73. Self-identity and attitude pathways were significant (p < 0.01) toward intention, extending the TPB model.

Conclusions

The TPB proved to be acceptable in understanding COC users’ intention to obtain LARC. Results provide direction for LARC messaging tailored toward COC users and self-identity.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12905-019-0772-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.