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Objectives The current study aims to compare the retail prices of the 10 most prescribed drugs in Northern Malaysia and Australia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted to compare the retail prices of the 10 most used prescription medications in Penang, Malaysia, with the retail prices of the same drugs in Australia. Data collection was done using a standard form. Percentage difference was calculated using simple mathematical formulae in Microsoft Excel. Key findings Findings demonstrate that the mean retail drug prices in Penang, Malaysia, were 30.30-148.28% higher than the mean retail prices in Australia. In addition, variation between retail prices was also noticed between pharmacies in Penang, with a difference between highest and lowest of 80%. Conclusion Malaysia has average higher retail prescription drug prices compared to Australia due to the lack of pharmaceutical market regulation, which could impose limits on prices, profits and total spending on pharmaceuticals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated Australian community pharmacists' perceptions and practices of generic substitution in response to recent changes in generic medicines policy under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme reform. All community pharmacists in Australia were invited to participate in a web-based survey conducted in the year 2008 using a self-completed anonymous questionnaire. Useful responses were received from 157 community pharmacists. Of the respondents, 95.5 per cent indicated that their pharmacy had a policy that encouraged generic substitution. Most pharmacists (93.7 per cent) were willing to substitute generics for brand name medicines whenever permitted. Patient's acceptability and chronic diseases were the factors that significantly influenced the pharmacists to offer a generic substitute. Conversely, concern about patient confusion was the major barrier to generic substitution. Only 29.9 per cent of pharmacists firmly believed that substituting an originator brand with a generic would not have any effect on the therapeutic outcome. Around 13 per cent of respondents were somewhat concerned about side effects resulting from generic substitution. The majority of Australian pharmacists are highly supportive of generic substitution. There is need for an education programme to ensure pharmacists have a sound understanding of generic substitution before and following the implementation of any generic substitution policy by government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generic medicines have a key role to play in the efficient allocation of financial resources for pharmaceutical medicines. In Australia, the current utilisation of generic medicines is comparatively low compared with other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. This paper discusses the current issues and problems relating to the use of generic medicines in Australia and the role they play in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which is a comprehensive system for subsidy of prescription drugs covering the whole population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Written medicine information (WMI) is valuable for health communication and encouraging the appropriate use of medicines by patients. Medicine regulations differ between countries, reflecting variations in WMI in terms of content and quality. The World Health Organization has recommended the provision of unbiased drug information to serve consumers. The objective of this study was to compare WMI of antidiabetic medications authorized for marketing in Australia, Europe, and Qatar using different quality criteria. Methods: Twelve WMI that were approved by respective regulatory agencies (RAs) in Australia, Europe, and Qatar were selected for quality evaluations. The evaluation tools used in this study were the DISCERN instrument and the Ensuring Quality Information for Patients (EQIP) tool in addition to the Flesch reading ease (FRE) score, and the Flesch-Kincaid grade level (FKGL) formula. Result: WMI from Qatar do not follow a specific format while those from Australia and the Europe follow the CMI and PIL formats, respectively. The best FRE and FKGL scores were achieved using WMI from Australia and Europe, respectively. There are significant differences (p ≤ 0.001) between the EQIP scores of WMI from Qatar vs. Australia and the EMA, while there are no significant differences (p = 0.134) between the EQIP scores of WMI from Europe and Australia. Conclusion: The quality and content of WMI are highly variable between different sources with some countries exhibiting best practices. The findings suggest the need for harmonization of guidelines for development or format to ensure global standardization of patient friendly WMI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study evaluated Australian community pharmacists' rate of generic medicine substitution, patient acceptance of generic substitution and cost-savings achieved for patients from substitution., Method: A national stratified sample of 500 Australian pharmacies was randomly selected from different geographical areas. The data of the first 25 original PBS prescription items dispensed on one working day eligible for generic substitution were collected from each pharmacy., Results: Responses were received from 82 pharmacies with a response rate of 16.4%. The pharmacists recommended generics for 96.4% (1461/1515) of the prescription items which were eligible for substitution. The generic substitution recommendation rate in urban (98.7%) and rural areas (98.0%) was significantly higher than remote areas (91.6%). Conversely, patients' acceptance in remote areas (84.5%) was significantly higher than rural (78.6%) and urban areas (73.2%). Patients with chronic diseases demonstrated significantly lower acceptability (72.4%) than patients with acute conditions (81.6%). Through acceptance of substitution, the patients' medicines expenditure reduced by around 21%., Conclusion: Australian community pharmacists demonstrated a high rate of recommending generic substitution. However, to optimize the generic medicines utilization, patients' acceptance requires further improvement., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To ascertain any differences in knowledge and perceptions of generic medicines between senior (final year) medical students and pharmacy pre-registrants in Australia., Methods: National web-based surveys containing 16 common questions were administered to each group. Responses were compared using Mann-Whitney U-test., Results: Responses were received from 400 medical students (response rate 26.7%) and 289 pharmacy pre-registrants (response rate 30.5%). Both groups scored poorly on the allowable bioequivalence limits when comparing a brand-name medicine with a generic medicine, with pharmacy pre-registrants scoring better (P < 0.001). Pharmacy pre-registrants were more likely (P < 0.001) to report having been introduced to bioequivalence during their courses, and less likely (P < 0.001) to desire more information on bioequivalence testing. Both groups correctly agreed that generic medicines are bioequivalent to corresponding brand-name medicines but not necessarily to each other, and that generic medicines are cheaper. Pharmacy pre-registrants were more aware that generic medicines must be in the same dosage form (P < 0.001) and contain the same dose (P < 0.001) as the comparator brand-name medicine. Both groups incorrectly believed that generic medicines are required to meet higher safety standards, are inferior in quality, are less effective and produce more side-effects. Both groups agreed that it is easier to recognise a drug's therapeutic class from its generic name and that they needed more information about the safety and efficacy of generic medicines, with medical students feeling more strongly about this (P < 0.001)., Conclusions: Although there were some differences in responses, both groups had knowledge deficits about the quality, safety and effectiveness of generic medicines, which need to be addressed by educators in order to increase the future use of generic medicines in Australia.