DO CURRENT AWARENESS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM TOWARDS UNREGISTERED DRUGS EFFECTIVE FOR PUBLIC? PHARMACISTS' PERCEPTIVE
Keywords:
unregistered drugs, awareness and educational program, pharmacist, public, perspectivesAbstract
Objective: Awareness and educational programme are one of the solutions to reduce unregistered drugs usage. In Malaysia, an agency called Pharmaceutical Services Division (PSD) and Pharmacy Enforcement Division (PED) are highly active in yielding many awareness programmes throughout the country as well as in its website. The goal of this research was to explore the pharmacist views or perceptions on the current awareness and educational programme on registered drugs.
Methods: These findings emerged from one-on-one semi-structured interview guided with sixteen pharmacists in Klang Valley who have represented the voice from the pharmacists throughout Malaysia.
Results: Six themes identified: ‘Consumer utility', ‘low health literacy', ‘social and education influenced', ‘equitable access to information', ‘promotion' and ‘persistent'. These themes emphasise the current awareness to improve and provide the programme to everyone in Malaysia to get the same information regardless they're staying. Pharmacists also expressed their concern about the current consumer who only cares about their benefit such as fast effect; cheap and easy to get by ignoring the bad impact if they consume the unregistered products. The pharmacists also believed that the health literacy, the social and educational level also influenced the purchase behaviour amongst consumer.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that the management of unregistered drugs needs to involve every organisation. Future research could develop a particular measure and score on awareness and knowledge amongst public on this issue. This test can be used as the indicator to evaluate the outcome of the future knowledge programmed.
Keywords: Unregistered drugs, Awareness and educational programme, Pharmacist, Public, Perspectives
Downloads
References
Bloch PH, Bush RF, Campbell L. Consumer ‘accomplices’ in product counterfeiting. J Consum Market 1993;10:27–36.
Gentry JW, Putrevu S, Shultz CJ. The effects of counterfeiting on consumer search. J Consum Behav 2006;5:245–56.
Hoe L, Hogg G, Hart S. Fakin’ it: counterfeiting and consumer contradictions. In: Turley Darach, Brown Stephen. eds. European Advances in Consumer Research 6. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research; 2003. p. 60–7.
Ang SH, Cheng PS, Lim EAC, Tambyah SK. Spot the difference: consumer responses towards counterfeits. J Consum Market 2001;182:19–235.
Leisen B, Nill A. Combating product counterfeiting: an investigation into the likely effectiveness of a demand-oriented approach. Mark Theory Appl 2001;12:271–7.
Cheung WL, Prendergast G. Buyers’ perceptions of pirated products in China. Marketing Intelligence Planning 2005;24:446–62.
Penz E, Sto¨ ttinger B. Forget the real†things take the copy! An explanatory model for the volitional purchase of counterfeit products. Adv Consum Res 2005;32:568–75.
Cordell VV, Wongtada N, Kieschnick RL Jr. Counterfeit purchase intentions: role of lawfulness attitudes and product traits as determinants. J Bus Res 1996;35:35–41.
Prendergast G, Chuen LH, Phau I. Understanding consumer demand for non-deceptive pirated brands. Marketing Intelligence Planning 2002;20:405–16.
Albers-Miller ND. Consumer misbehavior: why people buy illicit goods. J Consum Market 1999;16:273–87.
Wee C, Tan S, Cheok K. Non-price determinants of intention to purchase counterfeit goods: an exploratory study. Int Market Rev 1995;12:19–46.
FDA. Combating Counterfeit Drugs: A Report of the Food and Drug Administration. U. S. Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration. United States of America; 2004.
Salmah B. Malaysia: pharmacy transformation planning reform for universal access to medicines. Asia Pacific Conference On National Medicines Policies, Sydney, Australia; 2012.
Bonin CDB, Santos RZ Dos, Ghisi GLDM, Vieira AM, Amboni R, Benetti M. Construction and validation of a questionnaire about heart failure patients’ knowledge of their disease. Arq Bras Cardiol 2014;102:364–73.
Alfadl AA, Mohamed A, Hassali, Mohamed Izham M, Ibrahim. Counterfeit drug demand: perceptions of policy makers and community pharmacists in Sudan. Res Social Administrative Pharm 2013;9:302–10.
Felix T, Vane-Ing T, Judy Z. Understanding counterfeit consumption. Asia Pacific J Marketing Logistics 2014;26:4–20.
Julian H, Helmy HM, Philips S, Julian M. Keeping it real: combating fake drugs in Malaysia. Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS). Kuala Lumpur; 2011.
Julian H, Philip S, Julian M. Keeping it Real: Combating the Spread of Fake Drugs in Poor Countries. International Policy Network. United Kingdom; 2009.