It seems more likely to be a result of consolidation on the manufacturing side and the monopolizers paying their competitors to stay out of the market (or to ju

It seems more likely to be a result of consolidation on the manufacturing side and the monopolizers paying their competitors to stay out of the market (or to just resell the main brand which subsequently rations the supply). Shire pulled this trick with Adderall XR: they signed a deal (can't recall who it was, Teva maybe?) to provide the actual drug that the generic maker stamped with their name. When Shire (bought by Takeda) was getting ready to release Vyvanse they suddenly cancelled the contract and stopped providing the XR to Teva. There was a US-wide shortage for almost a year, during which many patients scrambled to find alternatives... some of them ended up with Vyvanse prescriptions as designed. I don't want to discount what you are saying though: the generic process should be streamlined. For Schedule II medications the extra regulatory burden definitely makes these schemes more profitable. You need a special DEA license to make them and the DEA sets quotas so even if you have a facility certified to make Schedule II drugs you need DEA permission to increase the supply. When Shire pulled the rug out from under everyone it took time for competitors like Teva to start production, get DEA approval, then get approval to manufacture in enough quantity to replace what Shire stopped making. This was well known at the time. To my knowledge no investigation was done whatsoever. The government simply allows companies to manipulate the market as they please. No wonder they have gotten bolder and bolder. I was not shocked in the least when Hedge Fund parasites like Martin Shkreli started looking for drug companies to buy to snap up the rights to single-source or low-volume generics to jack up the price. If a huge manufacturer can commit open market manipulation to the point that millions of people can't get an RX filled _anywhere_ to push them onto a newer expensive drug and the government doesn't even bother pretending to investigate... well there's lots of rent to be extracted!