This is a great case where unregulated free markets absolutely fail to solve the problem. Companies like Impax Laboratories are sole-suppliers, and the cost to

This is a great case where unregulated free markets absolutely fail to solve the problem. Companies like Impax Laboratories are sole-suppliers, and the cost to produce is the smallest cost, once initial capital costs are laid down to build the factories to produce them. What would happen if a challenger appeared? A new company gets some funding to try to make a small number of high profit drugs, competing with Impax? Impax can drop their price on those drugs lower than the challenger until the challenger is out of money. Any incumbent has already paid the initial capital costs, while challengers haven't. Challengers can't win unless they've got big enough pockets to equal the incumbent, or new techniques that let them undercut even the lowest price the incumbent can do. But in a field like this, where the lowest price is apparently in the pennies, I can't really see how you can undercut enough. I don't really see any simple solution to this problem.