Indonesian doctors are told to prescribe generics to reduce health costs

doi:10.1136/bmj.c349

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Ben Bland

¹Jakarta

Government doctors in Indonesia will soon be required to prescribe generic drugs where possible in a bid to drive down the spiralling costs of providing health care in the world’s fourth most populous nation.

Officials from the health ministry said that doctors working in state hospitals and clinics would be able to prescribe more expensive branded drugs only if no generic equivalents were available.

Although a decree requiring doctors to use generic drugs was implemented in 1989 it …