Factors influencing community pharmacist decision to dispense generic or branded medicines; Eastern Province, Alahsa, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Rising costs of medicines have increased the interest of policy makers in generic medicines. However, consumers’ and health care providers’ perception and attitude towards generic medicine act as a main barrier to the promotion of generic medicines. OBJECTIVE: To explore the factors community pharmacists consider while dispensing branded or generic medicines to consumers. METHOD: A qualitative study was planned; twenty community pharmacists (ten hospital affiliated pharmacies and ten non-hospital affiliated pharmacies) were approached using a convenient sampling method. Interviews were recorded and later were coded into themes. RESULT: Overall, it is seen that generic medicine stock was available for antibiotics, pain killers, cough syrups, antihistaminics and antacids. Pharmacists working in hospital affiliated pharmacies were more concerned about the quality of drug before dispensing it to the consumer and they believe that what is prescribed is best for them and substitution or switching is unnecessary while for pharmacists in the non-hospital affiliated pharmacies, appearance of the client was found to be the main factor influencing them to dispense generic (low cost) or branded (expensive) medicines. CONCLUSION: Physical appearance of the consumer is revealed to be one of the main factors affecting the pharmacist decision to dispense generic or branded medicine. Pharmacists practising in hospital affiliated pharmacies were found to be influenced by physicians’ recommendation, and prefer to dispense good quality medicines.