Exploring the differences between socio-economic groups to know their perspective and mind set about generic medicines

Abstract

Medicines comprise an important element in healthcare, providing protection, restoring and maintaining people’s wellbeing. Then the availability and excess of appropriate medicines of accrued quality, and quantities at reasonable prices are thus, a concern of global and national policymakers, health agencies and organizations. Pharmaceuticals and medicines form a sizeable outer pocket expenditure of health in Indian households. In the context of providing universal health care, providing financial risk protection to households affected by illness is a key objective with a focus on providing cover for medicines. To address this issue, the Government of India launched the Jan Aushadhi (Medicine for the Masses) Scheme (JAS) to provide cheap generic medicines to patients. Jan Aushadi stores have been established across the country to supply generic medicines. Generic medicines provide an option for patients to reduce their out-of-pocket expenses, as generic medicines are usually priced 10-80 % less than their branded counterparts. In the last FRGS project^[1] researcher wanted to see the prescription of patients from government and private hospitals in southwest Delhi, Dwarka and the compliance with Rule 1.5 of Medical Council Rule 2002.