The Perception of Healthcare Providers on the Quality of Locally Made Drugs and Imported Drugs

Abstract

Locally made drugs are an important policy way of reducing out-of-pocket expenditure on medicines. Therefore, negative perceptions of their quality affect utilization and raise issues of confidence and trust in medicines and health services. This study examines the perception of healthcare professionals to locally made drugs in relation to their understanding and opinions of generic and brand name drugs with the use of administering questionnaires to pharmacists, doctors, and nurses in tertiary hospitals in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Majority of the respondents were nurses (58.1%), 50.1% of the participant were females, they were in the age range of 20 to 30 years (37.8%). 46.4% of the nurses strongly agreed that locally manufactured medicines are more affordable than the foreign made, 15.9% of the nurses strongly agreed that locally manufactured medicines produce more side effects/adverse events than the foreign made while 19.6% of the pharmacists strongly agreed that prescribing decision is influenced by medical representatives of foreign made medicines. The lack of consensus in the perceptions of locally made drugs and foreign drugs may result in friction among health professionals as well as discrimination in patronage of foreign and locally made drugs.