8 and 9 While several studies that have examined the views of prescribers, pharmacists and consumers on issues related generic medicines policies and practices in Malaysia and elsewhere,4 studies examining the views of generic medicines producers are yet to be reported in Malaysia and are generally scanty elswhere.10 Therefore, the overall aim of this study is to provide the views of the Malaysian generic industry “insiders” on generic medicines

policies and practices in Malaysia, given that similar studies have not been carried out in Malaysia. Specifically, the objective FK228 of this paper, a part of a larger study aimed to explore the perceptions of the Malaysian generic manufacturers on the effectiveness of policies and regulations in promoting generic drugs in a Malaysia, and their level of satisfaction with generic dispensing, prescription and awareness in Malaysia. This was a cross-sectional descriptive national study using data obtained from a mailed self-completed anonymous questionnaire. The questionnaire was tested for face and content validity by two faculty members with expertise in survey research and in-depth knowledge of the Malaysian generic medicines industry. The final questionnaire was further evaluated by two generic drug manufacturers for content and clarity. The questionnaire contains three sections of five-point single-item Likert scale

responses that examined the study’s objectives.11 The first section assesses respondent’s find more views on the effectiveness of the regulatory exception provision in the Malaysian patent law in facilitating early market entry of new generic medicines. The second section assesses respondent’s views on the effectiveness of government policies and regulations in promoting generic medicines in Malaysia. The third section assesses respondent’s level of satisfaction regarding the level of generic prescribing; generic dispensing; generic public awareness; and generics education

and information to healthcare professionals in Malaysia. A final section contains questions on respondent’s engagement in generic manufacturing and the market sector of generic sales. The questionnaire these along with a cover letter and a prepaid return envelope was mailed to the entire members (N = 26) of the Malaysian Organization of Pharmaceutical Industries (MOPI) licensed to manufacture prescription medicines in Malaysia. MOPI is the national official representative body of generic drugs manufacturing firms in Malaysia. The chief executive officers or managing directors of all the generics firms were the target audiences of the questionnaire. Non-responders were again mailed the questionnaire materials after the initial mailing three times over three months. Follow-up telephone calls were made to non-responders in two successive months following the last reminder mailing. The entire data collection period was from January 2010 to December 2010. All data collected were entered into SPSS 20.0 for analysis.