Objective: A perception survey of healthcare providers and pharmaceutical industries about the current package insert (PI) was conducted to evaluate whether its layout and issues such as the contents concerning drug-drug interactions are found appropriate.
Methods: A questionnaire was sent via the Internet to physicians of various subspecialties, or via the postal service to pharmacy-employed pharmacists and pharmaceutical industries. It consisted of questions regarding the PI layout, the information contents on drug-drug interactions and other matters about PI revision.
Results: The survey showed that the PI is a major source of drug information for physicians (82.4%) and pharmacists (98.7%). The layout (order of appearance of headings and information about drug interactions in a tabular format) of the current PI is widely accepted by physicians, pharmacists, and pharmaceutical industries. There was, however, some degree of disagreement within these three groups in the perceptions about the presentation/contents of the several drug interactions, as well as about the timing for its updating. Around 24% of physicians and 35% of pharmacists view that the content of drug interactions is insufficient, and that information about adverse drug reactions and drug interactions is not enough updated in the PIs. On the other hand, near 86% of pharmaceutical industries were prone to wait for accumulation of enough data until revising the information in PIs.
Conclusions: Differences of perception were found between healthcare providers (i.e., PI users) and industries. Our survey revealed that the basic layout of the current PI should be preserved, but there are issues such as the contents and updating of information regarding drug interactions and adverse drug interactions that may require modifications according to the healthcare providers’ point of view.
