OBJECTIVE: To investigate the market share of generics, their production and promotion process by the Greek pharmaceutical industry. METHODS: Analyses are based on questionnaire mailed to companies members of the Greek Federation of Pharmaceutical Companies, in 2002 with a response rate of 52%. Questionnaire was divided in three sections, first requested information on the companies' involvement in the production of generics, second on companies' opinion regarding generics characteristics and government interventions, third on policies affected generics demand. Data was analyzed in two stages, first concerning detailed description of outcomes and second percentage comparisons through binomial tests. RESULTS: A total of 46.4% of the companies are involved in the production and distribution of generics while 53.6% are not, their difference is not statistically significant (equality of percentages test p = 0.59). The mean period of companies involvement is 12 years while 80.8% of the respondents expressed positively for their companies involvement in generics. A total of 30.8% of the companies consider that the most important characteristic of generics is that they are safe and cheap substitutes of the brand drugs. Of the companies, 88.5% consider government does not promote the prescription of generics, whereas 11.5% had different opinion, binomial test for the equality of percentages resulted in p <0.001, meaning that the difference is statistically significant. The majority of companies (70.4 %) consider that cost-effectiveness analyses should be the criteria for inclusion in the prescribed drug list vs.18.5% the cost of treatment, 3.7% for reference pricing and 3.7% for the daily dose cost of treatment. Finally, majority of companies consider the positive list as the most important factor for the promotion of generics from health professionals. CONCLUSION: Generics share in Greece is lower compared to the EU countries. High share of imported brand drugs, irrational pricing and parallel exports are main factors contributing to continuing increase in drug expenditure and decrease in the drug production of Greek industry.