UTILIZAÇÃO DE MEDICAMENTOS GENÉRICOS PELA POPULAÇÃO DE UMA CIDADE DO INTERIOR DE SÃO PAULO

Abstract

The generic is a medicine that has all the conformities of the reference medicine, what makes them different is that it is only produced after the expiration of the patent of the reference medicine, it is bioequivalent to it, therefore interchangeable. This class of drugs clearly demonstrates its benefits to the population, due to its quality of efficacy, social benefit, economic value and pharmaceutical equivalence. The main objective of this work was to investigate the behavior and knowledge of people, regardless of their social class, regarding generic drugs. It refers to a cross-sectional descriptive study, which used a questionnaire containing 25 questions, which was analyzed according to the responses of randomly chosen people. 100 people aged 19-68 years were interviewed, among 100 respondents, 71% were women and 29% men. As for using continuous medicine, 64% use it and 36% do not use it, 45% receive it from the municipal health unit and 55% of them do not receive it. As for the use of generics, 88% use them while 12% do not use them. The results demonstrate the need for greater awareness among prescribers in order to increase the use of generic drugs and thus contribute to reducing costs for the population.