You and the sibling seem to be working with a model where you can just ramp up production by snapping your fingers, and there aren't alternatives to playing in

You and the sibling seem to be working with a model where you can just ramp up production by snapping your fingers, and there aren't alternatives to playing in the perfectly competitive market. Why would anyone invest $$$$ to ramp up production of old generic drugs instead of new fancy drugs - especially when "new fancy" is sometimes small tweaks to get a new patent? There's no evidence provided here that the problem is in fact that "these generics are legally prohibited from being sold for a higher price" or that too much of their sales are to government-set/negotiated-rate health-plans. There's nobody quoted here saying "if it cost 1.25x,2x,3x,10x, that would justify investment, but we can't charge more." So if you look at what drug companies charge for patented drugs, "focus on the expensive stuff, and don't dedicate many resources to the generic pipelines" is a perfectly incentive market-based capitalistic decision for industry players to make. Government intervention to boost supply and add redundancies to supply chains looks like a great option.