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Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo
I wondered the same and did some (completely high-level) research....
The issue is that you can't quickly ramp up and start producing medications overnight. Building a facility to produce small batch pharmaceuticals is an incredibly expensive proposition.
Realistically, you'd need a couple of years (possibly, even likely more) to get the financial backing arranged and wade through the government paperwork. The amount of paperwork seems staggering, and all of it is linked to government, so you know it ain't fast or logical.
The alternative is to outsource to an existing contract manufacturer. The challenges are theoretically reduced, but there's still plenty of licensing and QA/QC requirements to address.
Now that we've secured our paperwork and source of manufacturing, there's still the little business of actually selling the medication. Assuming that the price is reasonable, this shouldn't be a problem....but it still takes time.
It appears to me that this is what the patent vultures rely on. The fact that it there is no competition and won't be any competition for at least a couple of years guarantees huge profits. 10 cent pills for $750 for a couple years......
As for my exact opinion.....I think that the practice is disgusting.
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This is the also one of the factors exasperating the drug shortages issues we've been having