Medicines are crucial building blocks of the health care system and contribute to health and well-being of individuals and a nation. 4p’s of marketing, i.e. product, place, price, and promotion forms the foundation for the entire structure of health care marketing. Understanding the behavior of doctors as consumers gives an insight into some of the psychological aspects of marketing of medicines. The perception of high quality is the most important product attribute for medicines needed to gain the doctors trust, which is missing with generic drugs in India. Perception of poor quality of the generic drugs is preventing the Indian doctors to prescribe the same to their patients. Yet awareness and trust on quality of generic drugs are still questions to be answered to convince the Indian doctors to prescribe generic drugs. Since there is no systematic and universal health care coverage plans in most the states, out-of-pocket expenditure on medicines is estimated to be around 95 percent of hospitalizations, and is a known driver of poverty among the Indian poor. Though India is famed as “pharmacy of world” and feeding the needs of the entire world with high quality generic drugs, the Indian pharma industry fails to provide the same benefits for the needy Indians who cannot afford expensive branded medicines. The Prime Minister Modi’s initiative of the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana is an important policy decision to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure on medicines. Medical Council of India has notified that all physicians should prescribe drugs with generic names only, not with brand names.
Impact Factor
2022: 6.012
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