Background: Prescription audit aids in evaluating the quality of medical treatment offered to the patients. It helps to discern any effective changes that would support health care professionals to proffer superior quality of care to the patients. Aim of the study is to carry out prescription audit in the outpatient pharmacy department of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted on 500 prescriptions for a span of four months in the outpatient pharmacy department of a tertiary care teaching hospital in South Karnataka, India. All the prescriptions were analyzed based on WHO prescribing indicators and were evaluated for errors in prescription writing. Data were entered and analyzed using into SPSS. Graphic representation has been used for visual interpretation of the analyzed data. Results: Five hundred scripts comprising of 1,661 drugs were analyzed. The average number of drugs per prescription was three. The study encompassed 52% males and 48% females. Most patients were from the age group of 41-60 years. Only 3.6% (18) of medications were prescribed by generic names. Patients received 9% (145) medications contained in Essential Drug List and prescriptions containing antibiotics were 19% (97). Majority of the prescriptions were from Orthopaedics (18.6%) tailed by General Medicine (15.8%). Consecutively Analgesics (12.7%) were the most commonly prescribed drug class, among which Diclofenac and Paracetamol+Tramadol were usually prescribed, this was tailed by gastrointestinal medicines (11.7%). Conclusion: Prescription audit can be helpful to plan appropriate intervention to ensure the rational drug therapy and to evaluate the existing drug use pattern. It also reflects the perspectives of current prescribing pattern in hospitals.

Aim/Background: Several branded pharmaceuticals and generic medicines are available in the market for the management of End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) as a supportive care, and clinicians are unaware of the cost minimization and cost consequences aspects of these medications. Thus, this study aimed to compare the prices of branded versus generic medicines for ESRD treatment and to present the cost savings with a generic alternative. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted among ESRD patients from three different tertiary care teaching hospitals in South India. The cost of branded pharmaceuticals were determined using the most recent current index of medical specialties, while the prices of generic medicines were accessed using the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana scheme, 2022. Results: The data were collected from 385 patients with ESRD. All Jan Aushadhi generic medicines were less expensive when compared to the branded medicines. The cost of ESRD medicines accessible in India varies greatly. The greatest difference in percentage cost savings were noted with amlodipine 5 mg tab (93.03%), voglibose 0.2mg/tab (88.10%), calcium carbonate + Vitamin D 3 supplements 500 mg tab (80.27%), torsemide 10 mg tab (78.01%), and hematopoietic agent, erythropoietin 2000 U/inj (75.38%). Conclusion: The haematopoietic medicines and antidiabetic insulin injections were the most expensive medicines among the study population. Our research indicates that replacing the generic medicines with the branded medicines could help in reducing the cost burden. Healthcare professionals may consider prescribing generic medicines for cost-savings.