I don't think that's how drug pricing works. According to this report's appendix G[1], manufacturing costs are 25% of price and they count after-release R&D as

I don't think that's how drug pricing works. According to this report's appendix G[1], manufacturing costs are 25% of price and they count after-release R&D as part of that (and don't count pharmacy margins). Most generic drugs probably don't cost more than a few cents a pill to manufacture, assuming the pharmacy and manufacturer make a profit on it. In other words, it's all in the R&D and compliance costs, which grapefruit couldn't help with. And re: doctors prescribing a combination of active ingredients that hadn't had a pharma company spend a few billion dollars studying... well, just read this[2], about how some company is making big bucks selling $300 fish oil pill bottles that had a bit of FDA compliance work (and related studies) done about them because doctors would never prescribe the $30 pill bottles that weren't filed with the FDA. [1] http://bvssp.icict.fiocruz.br/pdf/Pharmaceutical.pdf http://bvssp.icict.fiocruz.br/pdf/Pharmaceutical.pdf https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/15/fish-now-by-prescription/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/15/fish-now-by-prescripti...