• Ilse Truter, Sushma Shankar, Marion Bennie, Woerkom Menno van Mv, and Brian Godman.
• Drug Utilization Research Unit (DURU), Department of Pharmacy, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa.
• J Comp Eff Res. 2015 Mar 1; 4 (2): 123-31.

BackgroundThere have been multiple reforms in South Africa to conserve resources including policies to enhance generic use, such as compulsory generic substitution and copayments. However, there are concerns with the limited knowledge of their impact.ObjectiveThe objective was to determine utilization and expenditure of different proton pump inhibitors (PPIs).MethodologyA retrospective drug utilization study was conducted on a prescription database of a medical aid administrator in 2010.ResultsThe limited prescribing of single-sourced PPIs accounted for 21.5% of total prescriptions. The limited use of originators omeprazole and lansoprazole accounted for 1.8 and 1.4% of total prescriptions for the molecule, respectively. Generic prices accounted for 36-68% of the originator in 2010. Patients received on average 2.91 PPI prescriptions during the year.ConclusionPolicies to enhance prescribing of generics appear working. Opportunities exist to further lower generic prices given low prices in some European countries.

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