• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.195-202
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• 2011

Generic medication market has been increased for economic reasons in Korea. Health authorities worldwide recommend the use of generic medications nowadays. However, patients in Korea are not familiar with the generic medications and considerable percent of those do not know the definition of the generic medications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate adults' knowledge and perception on the generic medications at community pharmacies in Korea. This study was a 11-questionnaire survey conducted from August 9, 2010 to August 27, 2010. Of the 204 respondents, 63 (30.9%) responded that they knew what a generic medication was, but only 16 (25.4%) of those answered that generic medications had the same efficacy as brand medications. When pharmacists were the source of generic medication information, more patients reported having knowledge about the definition of generic medications correctly compared with other sources. Patients with negative experience with generic medications within 6 months were more reluctant to generic substitution suggested by a pharmacist than those with positive experience. Based on the results of this study, further studies should be conducted to establish the best way to provide generic medication information for patients.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 2017

Background: Generic medications are approved on the basis of bioequivalence with brand medications in healthy volunteers rather than the target population, there remains a substantial uncertainty regarding their clinical effectiveness and safety. The object of this paper is to compare the clinical equivalence of generic statin drugs in patients. Methods: Literature published before September 2016, which is indexed in PubMed, EMBASE, RISS, comparing generic to brand products in statins. Outcomes included blood lipid level, proportion of days covered (adherence), hospitalization and mortality. Results: 511 citations were screened, of which 11 studies met eligibility criteria (6 randomized clinical trials, 5 observational studies). Generic atorvastatin was clinical equivalent with brand drugs in blood lipid level (3 RCTs) and generic simvastatin was also clinical equivalent with brand drugs (2 RCTs). 2 of 3 studies reported no significant difference in proportion of days covered except 1 study which reported generic statin significantly enhance proportion of days covered (p<0.001). Hospitalization was no significant difference in all studies (p>0.05). 1 study reported that all cause of mortality was significantly low in generic drugs (p<0.0001). Conclusion: Published data on comparing clinical efficacy of generic and brand statins were insufficient in both quantity and quality. This systematic review suggests that additional studies on clinical equivalence and safety of generic medications in patients would be needed.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.126-134
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was aimed to examine the financial effect of 2-tiered copayment system on annual expenditure of pharmacy benefit in the National Health Insurance (NHI) of Korea, focusing on oral antidiabetic medications. Methods: 284 oral antidiabetic products with 14 different active single ingredients listed in the National Formulary of NHI (August 2009) were assigned to tier 1 or tier 2 according to the selected criteria. 10 different combinations of coinsurance rates were selected to estimate the changes in drug expenditure cost of NHI. Results: The annual drug cost was estimated based on the drug price per unit listed in the National Formulary and the used amount of products in 2009 from the IMS Health data of Korea. In the combinations of coinsurance rate of 20% for tier 1 and 40% for tier 2, the total annual drug cost was estimated to be reduced by 1.3% in the case of no change of generic and original drug consumptions, and to be reduced by 4.3% in the case of 10% increased generic drug consumptions. Conclusion: The tiered copayment system with optimal coinsurance rates appears to be a potential strategy to reduce the financial burden of NHI in Korea by promoting the use of generic products.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.99-106
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• 2014

This study explores the prescribing pattern of generic drugs and the relationship between socio-demographic factors and the use of generics in South Korea. The analysis was based on claims data of 2011 from Korean National Health Insurance. We examined utilization, costs, and market share of oral preparations by original and generic product. Multiple logistic regression was performed to evaluate the predictive factors of generic use among multi-source medications. Generics accounted for 37~41% of utilization and 34~41% of costs in the insured market of oral preparations. In the generic market, costly generics made up about 58~61%, 56~66% of volume and value, respectively. Other things being equal, institutional factors affected generic use to the largest degree. The odds of having generics were 6 times higher in clinics, 4 times higher in hospitals, and 1.7 times higher in general hospitals than in teaching hospitals. Those in metropolitan or rural area were more likely to prescribe generics than those in the capital area. While generics were frequently prescribed for off-site pharmacy (OR=1.173), the odds of having generics was 0.88 after weighting the data by units prescribed. This study empirically presented the pattern of generic prescribing, confirming the widely accepted view that costly generics were more likely to be utilized in the Korean market. Up to two thirds of the generic market consisted of costly products. The strongest factors affecting generic use were institutional variables.