Correspondence: Mohamed A.A. Hassali, Discipline of Social & Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia. E-mail: azmihassali@usm.my

¹graduated with a pharmacy degree from the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia in 1998. Following his pharmacy pre-registration training at Hospital Teluk Intan, Perak, he undertook his Master's studies in the field of clinical pharmacy at USM and graduated in 2000. In 2006, he was successfully awarded a PhD degree from the Victorian College of Pharmacy, Monash University, Melbourne in the field of pharmacy practice. His current research interests are in the areas of clinical pharmacoeconomics, social pharmacy and the pharmacists' role in public health. Currently, Dr Azmi is attached to the Discipline of Social & Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM.

²graduated with a pharmacy degree from the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia in 2001 and was registered as a professional pharmacist in Malaysia in 2002. He was awarded USM fellowship in 2003 to pursue a doctorate degree in pharmacoeconomics, which he successfully completed at Cardiff University, United Kingdom in 2007. During this time, he also undertook a postgraduate diploma in Health Economics at the University of Glamorgan. His current research interests are in the area of health economics, and social and administrative pharmacy. Currently, Dr Shafie is attached to the Discipline of Social & Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM.

³obtained a BPharm degree from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria in 1999 and a MPharm (Clin Pharm) degree from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in 2004. He is an erstwhile lecturer in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the International Islamic University Malaysia and currently a doctoral degree candidate in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at USM. His research interests include clinical and outcomes research in cardiology and infectious diseases; evidence-based therapeutics; pharmacoepidemiology; health promotion and disease prevention; and pharmaceutical education. He has published extensively in the areas of clinical pharmacy, pharmacy practice and education in reputable international journals. He is also a recipient of a number of publication, research and scholarship awards.

⁴is an academic staff training fellow and a PhD candidate in the Discipline of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). He graduated with a BPharm degree and an MPharm (Clin Pharm) degree from USM in 2002 and 2005, respectively. He was awarded a USM fellowship to pursue a doctorate degree in 2006, which he is currently undertaking. His current PhD project involves a comparative study investigating the perceptions of various health-care professionals on generic medicines in Malaysia and Australia. He has published a number of papers in impact factor journals.

⁵is a professor of social and administrative pharmacy in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Universiti Sains Malaysia. He obtained his BPharm degree from USM in 1991 and a PhD from University of Philadelphia in 1995. Izham has over 15 years of teaching experience and has successfully supervised more than 30 MSc and PhD students. His areas of research interest are pharmaceutical economics, drug policy & management, pharmacoepidemiology, social & behavioral aspects of pharmacy and health. He has published many books and research papers in international journals.

⁶is a doctoral research fellow in the Discipline of Social & Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Science Malaysia. She graduated with a BPharm, MPharm and MPhil (Pharmacology) degrees from the University of Karachi, Pakistan. She has over 10 years of teaching and research experience with a reasonable number of publications. For the PhD, she is currently working on generic medicines issues in Pakistan.

Received 27 April 2009; Revised 27 April 2009; Published online 1 September 2009.

Abstract

Most countries are facing escalating health-care expenditures. A recent trend to control these staggering increases in costs is to encourage the use of generic medicines. Physicians are at the centerpiece of the medication use process as they are the dominant prescribers in all clinical settings. It is therefore prudent to examine what they perceive about generic medicines. The current study attempts to identify and review the literature on physicians' perceptions and practices on the use of generic medicines. Using subject-related keywords, an extensive literature search was undertaken through indexing services available in the authors' institution's library. Full text papers written in English language between 1980 and 2008 were retrieved and reviewed. Fourteen studies, majority (n=5) from the United States were reviewed and included. Most of the studies used quantitative methodology. Generally, physicians were neutral to slightly supportive on the use of generic medications. Most of the studies reviewed highlighted the factors that can influence physicians' views as policy-related issues, patient-related variables, drug characteristics and physician-related variables. Although physicians accept generic substitution under policy and economic pressures, they still have concerns about the overall quality and reliability of generic drugs as well as generic interchange of certain drug categories.