OBJECTIVES: Investigate Greek adults’ perceptions of drug effectiveness and prices. METHODS: A structured questionnaire was used in a telephone survey in order to derive data from a national random sample of 1000 adults, stratified by age, gender and geographic region. Physicians and pharmacists were excluded from the sample. The study was conducted in June 2007. The response rate was 93.0%. RESULTS: Drugs were considered by the majority of respondents (75.7%) as safe and effective as well as very important for medical practice (65.2%). Respondents believed that new drugs are of a higher price (67.8%), however these were perceived as more effective than older ones (79.4%)  Regarding the prices of drugs in Greece, one out of two respondents believed that the prices are extremely high. Women as opposed to men expressed the less positive opinion on the implemented pricing policy.  The majority of respondents (81.4%) recognized that the cost of R&D should be included into the price of the drugs, but they think that the pricing regulation of drugs is in favor of pharmaceutical industries (90.1%). Furthermore, they expressed the opinion that prices should be as low as possible regardless of the effectiveness. On the other hand, they claimed that physicians should always prescribe the most effective drug regardless of its price. The majority of respondents (89.4%) reported that polypharmacy and irrational prescribing are major problems in Greece and considered doctors to be primarily responsible, followed by the absence of audit in the health system. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the fact that drugs prices are considered high, Greek adults have a strong positive view regarding their safety and effectiveness. Knowledge on both the public’s perception regarding drugs and the drivers of drug consumption would be beneficial in finding the appropriate tool / intervention to restrain polypharmacy and improve patient compliance.