OBJECTIVES: To assess the perception of health sciences students of southern Karnataka towards generic drugs. METHODS: The study was performed over a period of one month through one to one structured surveys with a random sample of 200.  The response was analysed by descriptive and frequency statistics using SPSS ver. 20. RESULTS: Out of the 200 questionnaires administered 183 responded with response rate of 91.50% and mean age of 23.64 ± 3.20. Out of total respondents 47 % were undergraduates and 45.4% were postgraduates. 54.6 % students were from medical sciences followed by 23 % from allied health sciences and 9.8 % from pharmaceutical sciences. The knowledge was assessed and 34.5 % agreed that brand name drugs are of better quality than generic drugs while 38.3 % disagreed. 40.5% disagreed that brand name drugs were more effective than generic medicines and 32.1 % were unsure. 44.2 % students disagreed that generic drugs have more side effects than brand name drugs while 15.3 % agreed. Finally 71.1% agreed that generic drugs were less expensive than brand name drugs. Attitude towards the generic drugs was also assessed. Prescribing generic drugs will reduce the treatment cost and cost related non-compliance was agreed upon by 74.9 % and 78.7 % students respectively. 81.4% agreed that increased use of generic medicine will reduce unethical marketing practices by Pharmaceutical companies.  80.8 % agreed that more policies should be framed to promote generics prescriptions and 85.3 % believed that the community pharmacist can play important role to promote the use. CONCLUSIONS: In a country like India where brand name drugs have an upper hand the attitude of younger breed of professionals is encouraging but on a contrast the knowledge was low and many resorted to be unsure on various basic aspects.