일반의약품의 시리즈형 상품명 사용에 따른 일반소비자의 사용행태와 인식 분석

Analysis on the Consumer Behavior and Perception of Similar Nomenclature of Series named Nonprescription drugs

Medication error might be prevented and one of medication error is name-confusion error. Especially OTC(Over-the-counter medicine) drug can be often used as self-treatment by patient and recognition of exact drug name for each indication is very important. However, many of the series named OTC products exist currently on the market, and it may act as a barrier for proper use of OTC products for customers. The “series named over-the-counter medicine” refers to a product name that adds letters, words or numbers to an already existing OTC brand name. There are many ‘Series named Over-the-counter medicine’ in Korean pharmaceutical market for promotional purposes by the pharmaceutical companies. The Series named OTC products may have advantages in terms of product management, but they also carry the risk that they may confuse pharmacists and consumers due to similar names. Therefore we evaluated the knowledge and use behavior of Series named OTC medicine, from December 5 to 18, 2019 by an online survey for general public. The results showed that 12 brands of the top 20 OTC products in sales owned the Series named product, and 87.1% of 186 customers said that they don’t know the difference between series product. And ‘pharmacist’s recommendation’(58.6%) was the most essential factor in selecting the OTC product. In conclusion, most consumers are not aware of the therapeutic differences between the Series named OTC products in each one brand. The benefit and safety issues of Series named product nomenclature must be evaluated before the marketing for preventing drug name confusion.