The survey, 89% Italians know generic drugs and 90% trust the pharmacist

89% of Italians know generic or equivalent drugs, medicines which, compared to ‘branded’ drugs, have the same active ingredient, the same pharmaceutical form, the same dosage and the same route of administration and are comparable to them for the same quality, safety and efficacy. Almost half have heard of generics from the pharmacist, 39% from the doctor. A quarter have direct experience of them because they use them, and almost 80% of respondents say they have hired an equivalent in the last year. These are the main data that emerged from the survey “Generic drugs and the role of the pharmacist” by Emg Different, carried out between 13 and 16 May with 800 interviews on a representative sample of the Italian adult population. The in-depth talk “Health choices. Generic drugs: a valuable choice in pharmacies ”, which will be broadcast live on 13 July at 5.45 pm on the AdnKronos web channels and on the AdnKronos Youtube profile (youtube.com/adnkronos). It is intriguing that, despite the wide and widespread knowledge that emerged clearly from the survey, more than 70% of the Italians interviewed would like an information campaign on equivalent medicines from institutional figures and bodies: doctors (43%), Medicines Agency (37%) or Agencies health care (36%). The survey also confirms the key role of the pharmacist in the choice of treatments. These professionals enjoy the trust of Italians (90%) and 1 out of 5 has a lot of it, so much so that 60% say they have a reference pharmacy. The reason for this success? Preparation and good advice, as about half of the sample stated, but it is noted that only 1 in 5 interviewees (19%) remember that the pharmacist has proposed an equivalent. This advice is accepted by 84% of Italians, half ask for some explanation, but in practice 1 out of 3 accepts on trust. Starting from these data, various experts from the world of health will meet in an in-depth dialogue in the webinar promoted by Sandoz.