Seventy-four percent of doctors in South Korea take brands into account when prescribing drugs to patients, a report analyzing behavior and perceptions in the country’s medical sector showed Thursday.

The report was compiled by the Seoul-based medical industry research firm Medigate, which surveyed 1,000 doctors nationwide about their prescription decisions as well as perceptions of 20 Korean pharmaceutical companies with the highest revenues in 2016.

Medigate found that 74 percent of the respondents said they considered the name of a pharmaceutical company when prescribing drugs. However, only 4 percent considered the firm’s public image in making their decisions.

The top factors influencing doctors’ prescription choices were a drug’s efficacy (43 percent), followed by clinical evidence (13 percent) and drug marketing activities carried out by sales representatives (11 percent), according to the report.

In terms of prescription experience, 78 percent of the respondents said they had prescribed a drug from Hanmi Pharmaceutical in the past month. Daewoong Pharmaceutical came in at 71 percent, followed by Yuhan Corp. at 60 percent.

However, when rated for both corporate image and transparency -- on a scale of zero to seven -- Yuhan received the highest rating with a five point range. Hanmi ranked last for both of the factors.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)