Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of pharmacists towards biosimilar medicines in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Objectives The objectives of this study were to assess Nigerian pharmacists’ biosimilar medicine knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Methods This was a cross-sectional, national online-based survey of conveniently sampled pharmacists in Nigeria. Data were collected with a validated 31-item biosimilar medicine knowledge, attitude, and practice questionnaire. Pearson’s Correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the association between knowledge, attitude, and practice. A p-value Results Of the 600 pharmacists that were invited to participate in the survey, 411 completed the questionnaire giving a response rate of 68.5%. The mean knowledge score was 6.2±3.0 out of a maximum score of 14. Most of the participants (n=268, 65.2%) had overall knowledge scores of 1-7. The mean attitude score was 35.0±8.8 out of a maximum score of 55, whereas that of practice was 18.7±5.3 out of a maximum score of 30. Knowledge was significantly positively correlated with practice (γ = 0.360). Conclusion Most of the surveyed pharmacists had poor knowledge of biosimilar medicines, while reported fair attitude did not translate to perceived good practice.