Background: Generic drugs are the drugs having equal efficacy and low cost as compared to branded drugs. Using these drugs decreases the overall cost for the treatment. Government as well as non-government organizations are pushing for the use of generic drugs in India but use is still very less. It is important to know why these drugs are not as popular as it should be and why the use is sub optimal? Hence this study was designed to know perception of patients regarding the use of generic drugs.

Methods: A pre-validated pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect the data from patients attending various outpatients in hospitals in Patan city of Gujarat India. Research associated visited different hospitals and clinics in this area to survey patients regarding the generic drugs. Patient’s knowledge, prior experience of use and general opinion about the generics was gathered. Descriptive statistics was used in the form of frequency and percentages.

Results: There were total 345 patients surveyed. Out of the 345 patients, 166 (33.6%) had heard about the generic drugs. Out of those who heard about generics only 33.6% has used these drugs in past 6 months, 61% considered generic drugs as safe and 61% said that generics are as effective as brand drugs. 18% survey participants said that generics has more side effects as compared to brand.  Age between 45-55 years (OR=3.16), Primary education (OR=8.01), Secondary education (OR=6.19) and Higher Secondary education (OR=3.07) was found to be associated with the knowledge about the generic drugs while there was no association found for gender, locality, income and disease condition.

Conclusion: Majority of patients has heard about the generic drugs. Age and education was associated with better awareness about the generic drugs.  Proper dissemination of right information need to be done to enhance the understanding of patients regarding the generic drugs.