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JEL Classification System: M3, I1 ; Portugal, like the rest of the world, is going through a huge economic crisis, in this sense; other types of product emerge to meet consumer needs and the country's economy. In fast moving consumer goods, arise distributors brands, parallel in Pharmaceutical Industry and market, arise brands with Generic medicines. These medications come with a much lower cost to the consumer and present the same quality of the correspondent Brand medicines. In Portugal, these drugs have become a success story, recognized by the European Medicines Association (Gonçalves, 2009), which is related with the governmental measures adopted by governments, since the introduction of this type of medication in Portuguese market, as the creation of reference prices. However, this growth could have been even greater if it had not been observed a low rate of prescription in an initial phase. In this study, in order to understand how to enhance the consumption of these drugs and understand why in many cases Brand medicines are still elected as the first choice, the researcher proposed to observe the consumer due to its active and participatory on their health. As such, through a questionnaire, subjects were approached and questioned regarding the attitude and behavior towards the two types of medications and performed a subsequent statistical analysis. The results of this research focus on consumer perceptions about the Generic drugs, the impact that the sources of information and new technologies have on consumer behavior, perception of quality and sense of security concerning both types of medicines and intent of repeating the purchase in the future. ; Portugal, assim como o resto do Mundo, está a atravessar uma enorme crise económica, neste sentido, surgem outros tipos de produto para fazer face às necessidades do consumidor e à economia do país. No grande conumo surgem as marcas de distribuidor, paralelamente na Indústria e mercado farmacêutico, surgem as marcas de medicamentos Genéricos. Estes medicamentos surgem com um custo bastante inferior para o consumidor e apresentam-se coma mesma qualidade dos medicamentos de Marca correspondentes. Em Portugal, estes medicamentos tornaram-se um caso de sucesso, reconhecido pela Associação Europeia de Medicamentos (Gonçalves, 2009), o que está relacionado com as medidas governamentais adoptadas pelos vários governos, desde a introdução deste tipo de medicamentos no mercado Português, como é o caso da criação de preços de referência. Contudo, este crescimento poderia ter ainda sido maior, caso não se tivesse observado a baixa taxa de prescrição inicial. Neste estudo, de forma a perceber como se poderá aumentar o consumo destes medicamentos e compreender o porquê de em muitos casos ainda serem eleitos como primeira escolha os medicamentos de Marca, o investigador propôs-se a observar o consumidor devido ao papel ativo e participativo que este tem na sua saúde. Como tal, através de um questionário, foram abordados e questionados temas relativos a atitude e comportamento perante os dois tipos de medicamentos e realizada uma posterior análise estatística. Os resultados desta investigação centram-se na percepção do consumidor sobre os medicamentos Genéricos, o impacto que as fontes de informação e novas tecnologias têm no comportamento do consumidor, a percepção de qualidade e sentimento de segurança relativo a ambos os tipos de medicamentos e a intenção de repetição de compra no futuro.

E. Richard Brown. Rockefeller medicine men: medicine and capitalism in America This book tells the hidden story of the financial, political, and institutional manipulations whereby a diverse and eclectic range of healing modalities available to the North American public was summarily pared down to a singular style of medicine that would become the predominant medicine of the Western world and a major force in global medical culture during the 20th century. This was brought about largely by the collaboration of the American Medical Association, the philanthropies of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, and the development of a revolutionary curriculum by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Brown documents the story of how a powerful professional elite gained virtual hegemony in the Western theatre of healing by effectively taking control of the ethos and practice of Western medicine. E. Richard Brown describes how, in 1905, the American Medical Association's new Council on Medical Education funded by Carnegie and Rockefeller commenced serious activity. They employed the services of Abraham Flexner who proceeded to visit and "assess" every single medical school in the US and Canada. Within a short time of this development, medical schools all around the US began to collapse or consolidate. By 1910, 30 schools had merged, and 21 had closed their doors. Of the 166 medical schools operating in 1904, 133 had survived by 1910, and 104 by 1915. Fifteen years later, only 76 schools of medicine existed in the US. And they all followed the same curriculum. Brown shows how both social and political processes were consciously manipulated by a medical elite acting in concert with immense corporate wealth to create a system of medicine that better served economic and hegemonic intentions than social or humanitarian needs. -- Goodreads review ; https://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/the-rockefellers/1031/thumbnail.jpg

Increasing popularity of Chinese traditional medicine has resulted in an explosion of herbal product marketing. Such surge in popularity has resulted rampant marketing abuse by manufacturers who has taken advantage of the absence of herbal regulation. Most of the available information provided by the manufacturers is biased towards the therapeutic aspect of the remedies leaving the American public unwary of the potential toxicity that could result from the herb/herb and herb/drug interactions. The situation is further aggravated by the placement of herbal medicine under the category of seemingly benign dietary supplements. In addition, disturbing news of contaminations and herbal substitutions all point to the need for a new parameter set up by the government. Then again, the potential devastation on the baby herbal industry caused by the new regulations is an issue that needs contemplation.