Impact of interventions to promote the use of generic drugs: a systematic review.

The need to increase access to medicines, coupled with the limited acceptance of generics has sparked the search for effective interventions to promote it. This systematic review aimed to conduct a survey on interventions to promote the use of generic drugs and its impact. Randomized clinical trials, non-randomized controlled trials, controlled before-after studies and interrupted time series were included. The analysis of the impact of interventions and quality of evidence followed Cochrane's guidelines. Impact of interventions was rated from "very large" to "very small" and the quality of evidence was rated from "high" to "very low". Seventeen papers addressing prescribers, pharmacists and users were selected. There were educational, financial incentives and use of electronic prescription and managerial interventions. Interventions applied to prescribers had little to medium impact, with very low-to-low quality evidence. Interventions applied to pharmacists had small impact with very low quality evidence. Interventions applied to users had medium and large impact with very low-to-low quality evidence. Further studies with good quality addressing interventions are required.