Os fatores que influenciam a decisão de troca de um medicamento de marca por um medicamento genérico

Abstract

This study intends comprehend how and which reasons lead to the change of prescribed medication by the generic drugs in the sales point. This phenomenon, until the moment, is unknown so much by the doctors as by the pharmaceutical industry. It was studied factors like time of utilization of brand medicines, shared decision, perceived risk of the disease,subjective knowledge about the disease, sensibility at medications price and attitude towards the generic drugs. This way, the referred variables knowledge and their influences on the purchase decision of the consumer will be able to help to comprehend the purchase behavior of the medicines consumer, in order the pharmaceutical industry can measure its results, trace new strategies and minimize losses. Through the obtained results, it was possible verify that, in a sample of 399 interviewees, of the 60,8% whose medical prescriptions referred to brand medicines, 46,61% changed the initially prescribed medication for generic or similar medicines. Regarding the generic, the situation was inverse: in spite of the 31,7% of brand medicines prescriptions indicating the purchase of generic, the participation of generic medicines increased for 57,7% among bought medicines, indicating that there was a migration of the brand medicines initially prescribed to the acquisition of generic drugs. Also it was possible to confirm that the change of the brand medicine for generic medicines it was given, most of the time (90,1% of the interviewees who accomplished the referred change) in reason of the price, followed by the excuse that the active principle or the effect of the generic drugs are the same than those of the brand medicines, although the research also has demonstrated, surprisingly, that there was substitution of prescribed generic medicines by the doctor, for brand medicines also, thwarting therefore the initial proposal of this study.