The penetration of low-priced generic drugs of good quality leads to not only a lower financial burden on patients, but also financial improvement of Japan's medical insurance system. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the usage conditions of generic products (GE) and attitudes toward the reduction of national medical expense for pharmacists in chain community pharmacies in Japan using a questionnaire survey. The 20 - 25% usage conditions of GE were the highest in this study. The majority (89.2%) of pharmacists in the community pharmacy (positive group) have a positive attitude toward the reduction of national medical expense using GE, and the usage conditions of GE in the positive group are higher than that in the pharmacists that have a negative attitude toward the reduction of national medical expense using GE (negative group). In addition, the results of the questionnaire survey show that the pharmacists in the negative group still have doubts about the quality, effect and supply of GE in comparison with the positive group, and the pharmacists in the positive group were more interested in the generic drug dispensing fee in comparison with the negative group. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that most pharmacists in this study have a positive attitude toward the reduction of national medical expense using GE, and the attitude toward GE in pharmacies relates to the usage conditions of GE. These findings provide significant information on the need for a reduction of national medical expense using GE.
