Abstract

INTRODUCTION Access to drugs is a public health problem worldwide. The use of generic drugs is one of the strategies that has been proposed to optimize spending in this area and thus allow greater coverage. However, its use is not yet widespread enough, so this summary seeks to know the perspective on these drugs that patients or consumers have in this regard. METHODS To answer this question we used Epistemonikos, the largest database of systematic reviews in health, which is maintained by searching multiple sources of information, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, among others. We extracted data from the identified reviews, reanalyzed data from the primary studies, and prepared a summary table of results using the GRADE method for quantitative data and GRADE-CERQual for qualitative information reporting. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS We identified four systematic reviews that together include 47 primary studies, of which 1 corresponds to a randomized trial. A low proportion of patients or consumers have a negative perception of generic drugs in terms of their effectiveness, quality, safety, and risk of adverse effects.