DOI: 10.21276/aimdr.2017.3.1.PC1
Original Article ISSN (O):2395-2822; ISSN (P):2395-2814
Annals of International Medical and Dental Research, Vol (3), Issue (1) Page 1
Section: Pharmacology
Comparison of Generic and Branded Drugs on Cost
Effective and Cost Benefit Analysis.
Deepak Bhosle
1
, Asif Sayyed
2
, Abhijeet Bhagat
3
, Huzaif Shaikh
4
, Alimuddin Sheikh
5
, Vasundhara
Bhopale
2
, Zubair Quazi
4
1
Professor and H.O.D, Department of Pharmacology, M.G.M Medical College Aurangabad.
2
Chief Resident, Department of Pharmacology, M.G.M Medical College Aurangabad.
3
Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, M.G.M Medical College Aurangabad.
4
Resident, Department of Pharmacology, M.G.M Medical College Aurangabad.
5
PhD scholar Department of Pharmacology, M.G.M Medical College Aurangabad.
Received: December 2016
Accepted: December 2016
Copyright: © the author(s), publisher. Annals of International Medical and Dental Research (AIMDR) is an
Official Publication of “Society for Health Care & Research Development”. It is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-
commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
Background: To study cost-effective and cost-benefit analysis of antibiotic prescription in patients who had enteric fever
and was given intravenous ceftriaxone. Methods: This was a prospective observational study conducted in a tertiary care
hospital. 200 patients who have been diagnosed with enteric fever and were prescribed ceftriaxone were studied and their
prescriptions were analyzed. 5 brands of most commonly prescribed ceftriaxone injections were chosen to analyse cost-
effective and cost-benefit analysis. Our study showed that there was a major difference of prizes between generic and 5
most commonly prescribed brands of the same drug. Use of branded drugs was associated with increase cost of treatment
and in many cases was responsible for failure to take complete treatment as prescribed by treating physician. Results:
This Study was conducted on 100 patients, 68 males and 32 females, diagnosed with enteric fever. Out of these patients
Maximum number of patients were seen between age group of 30-40 years (34) and minimum patients belonged to age
group of more than 60 years (8). Analysis of prescriptions revealed that 80 patients were prescribed Branded drugs and
20% were prescribed generic drugs. Out of these 80 patients who were prescribed branded drugs most common 5 brands
were studied. The analysis of the cost of single dose of inj ceftriaxone revealed that branded drugs were 3.12 % to 200.84
% more in comparison with generic IV ceftriaxone. Analysis of cost of 1 day of treatment with IV ceftriaxone 1gm revealed
similar figures. Total cost of treatment was Rs 595 for generic drug and 1790 for branded drug with maximum MRP. The
Analysis of patients who discountinued treatment before completion revealed that most of them belonged to Brand E (30%)
and minimum number of patients belonged to Generic group (5%.Conclusion: The cost of most commonly prescribed
branded drugs was significantly higher (3%-200%) than generic drug and prescribing branded drugs was associated with
failure to take complete treatment as prescribed by treating physician.
Keywords: Branded, Generic, enteric fever, ceftriaxone, cost-effective analysis.
INTRODUCTION
A major chunk of healthcare spending is used for
buying pharmaceutical products. With
improvements and advances in health-care sector
this spending is expected to rise exponentially. Part
of is due to demographic changes and part of it is
due to better diagnosis and screening of conditions
like hypertension and diabetes etc.
[1]
These changes
are also the concern of governments around the
globe as it is the responsibility of the government to
contain the cost of drug bill. In many countries, like
Australia, governments do economic evaluation
before a drug is approved for reimbursement.
[2]
The
actual cost of drug is not much important in this
respect and what really important is value of drug
therapy which deals with not only the cost of the
drug but benefits of its use. Pharmacoeconomics
deals actually with this aspect of the drug use.
[3]
Rational prescription of drugs is impossible without
the knowledge of pharmacoeconomics. The fact that
the decision of choosing the drug is made by doctor
and not the consumer (patients) makes it a matter of
moral and ethical responsibility of treating physician
to see it to that the treating doctor prescribe medicine
consistent with the principles of
pharmacoeconomics.
[4]
Name & Address of Corresponding Author
Dr Asif Sayyed ,
Chief Resident,
Dept of Pharmacology,
MGM Medical college,
Aurangabad.
In a developing country like that of india where
ignorance and poverty is rampant it becomes all the
more relevant to emphasize the importance of
pharmacoeconomics while prescribing drugs. Given