OBJECTIVES: To promote economic treatment option in the society by reducing treatment cost and by supporting generic prescribing trends. METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional and non-experimental study was conducted among the prescribers of Bahawalpur, using a pre-tested questionnaire. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: A total of 250 of the prescribers were selected for the study including general prescribers (134) and specialists (116). 93.7% of the prescribers agreed the cost difference between generic and branded medicines, 52.1% of the prescribers disagreed that generic and branded drugs were equally effective, 73.1% of the prescribers believed that branded medicines followed more safety standards than the generic medicines and 61.1% of the prescribers agreed that advertisements have great impact on prescribing behavior. CONCLUSIONS: This study concluded that poor knowledge about safety, efficacy, quality and cost difference, and advertisements by the pharmaceutical companies are the major factors that force the prescribers to prescribe branded medicines rather economical generic. The study showed that lack of standard guidelines and polices divert the prescribing behavior from generic drugs to branded drugs.