Decoding the perception of prescribers towards generic medicine: A bibliometric study

2008 can be considered a watershed year for generic medicine in India, as it saw the launch of the Jan Aushadi scheme, to provide cost-effective quality medicines to its populace, through special stores called Jan Aushadi stores. With more than 8800 stores, the scheme is touted as one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical retail chains. Since then, many generic medicine start-ups have also launched operations in the country- Zeno Health, One India Pharmacy, Generic Aadhaar and StayHappi Generics. These supply side developments will however have to be complemented with commensurate demand side responses for it make a sustainable impact towards the push for affordable and accessible healthcare for all (Sustainable Development Goal 3). Many studies have established that, on the demand side, owing to the lack of requisite medical knowledge on part of the patients, there exists a strong agency relationship, where patients rely heavily on their physicians (prescribers) to make decisions on choice of treatments. Though promotion of generic medicines requires a coordinated effort from many stakeholders, analysis reveals that the prescribers, and hence their perception of generics, plays a pivotal role in their adoption. This study undertakes a bibliometric analysis of the top 100 most-cited research papers published between 2012 and 2022 on the perception of prescribers towards generic medicine from SCOPUS database. Suitable keywords have been incorporated to reach the relevant publications and VOSviewer (version 1.6.10) has been used for analysis. The findings of the study recommend further research on interventions aimed at improving prescriber’s perception towards generic medicines to enhance their adoption and promote cost effective healthcare delivery.