The comparison of the effectiveness and cost of drug use ipratropium bromide/fenoterol hydrobromide between the original drug and the generic drug in patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Lamphun hospital

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to compare the effectiveness and the cost of drug use between original drug and generic drug of ipratropium bromide/fenoterol hydrobromide in the patients with asthma and COPD in Lamphun hospital. This research took place from March to November, 2020 and was the retrospective-prospective study. The patients with asthma and COPD were diagnosed by physicians and ipratropium bromide 0.02 mg + fenoterol hydrobromide 0.05 mg MDI which are the original drug (Berodual®) and the generic drug (Aerobidol®) were prescribed for the patients; namely based on the reviews of the medical history at chest clinic and the number of drug dispensing at the medicine inventory unit in Lumphun hospital from 1st October, 2017 to 31st January, 2018, the generic drugs were prescribed by the physicians while from 1st October, 2018 to 31st January, 2019, the physicians prescribed only the original drugs. In addition, the prospective data collection was done from June to September, 2020 and there were 30 patients compiled with the research criteria. The data was analyzed with frequency, percentage, mean and paired samples t-test with statistical significance at 0.05.
The study result illustrated that there was same effectiveness of drug use with inhaler, from onset period to recovery period, between original drug and generic drug (t=0.372, p=0.712) and both original and generic drugs gave no side effect to most patients as well. On the other hand, there were different numbers between original drugs (Berodual®) and generic drugs (Aerobidol®) given to patients that it was a statistically significant difference at 0.05 (t=5.794, p=0.000); namely most patients received only one tube of original drug while the generic drugs were given two tubes to them. The cost difference between original drug use and generic drug use was also a statistically significant difference at 0.05 (t=5.383, p=0.000) that the total cost of generic drug use was higher than that of original drug use because of the bigger numbers of generic drugs prescribed. As per this study, it is indeed crucial for physicians and pharmacists to monitor the drug use consistently although the use of original and generic drugs gave no side effect to most patients. Consequently, the drugs will be managed well and helpfully as well as patients will get an effective treatment together with able to avoid an unexpected negative effect.