My impression is that the production of biological drugs (as opposed to small molecules) is simply more expensive on a large scale. There isn't as much potentia

My impression is that the production of biological drugs (as opposed to small molecules) is simply more expensive on a large scale. There isn't as much potential to save costs as with small molecule generic drugs. This seems to be a small-scale expression and optimization, and I'd guess that this is not the expensive part of developing a generic insulin. Large-scale manufacturing and making sure you're producing the correct molecule reliable, and then demonstrating that to the FDA are probably orders of magnitude more expensive.