4 ms·

That's what you get when some companies have a monopoly on selling drugs to your country's hospitals. There isn't an actual production shortage, it's just that

• mathattack 13y ago
  Is the bottleneck the drug companies, or the distributors?
  • btian 13y ago
    The FDA. Many drugs (especially low volume ones) cannot get approved for human use in the United States due to cost.
    • mathattack 13y ago
      Ahhh- that's why it's an issue that we don't accept the approval of other governments too.
• NoPiece 13y ago
  That's not at all what the author of the blog has written previously. The FDA began to ramp up GMP rules and regulations under the new commissioner in 2010 and 2011 (see figure at left (N.B. this includes all warning letters not just GMP so it is just illustrative, AT added). In fact, the report indicates that FDA threats shut down some 30% of the manufacturing capacity at the big producers of generic injectables. The safety of these lines was not a large problem and could have been handled with a targeted approach but instead the FDA launched a sweep against all the major manufacturers at the same time. These problem have been exacerbated by a change in Medicare reimbursement rules and by the rise of GPOs (buying groups) which reduced the prices of generics. Thus, in response to the cut in capacity, firms have shifted production from less profitable generics to more profitable branded drugs, so we get shortages of generics rather than of branded drugs. - See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/06/drug-shortages-caused-by-the-fda.html#sthash.pTEWEO31.dpuf* http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/06/dru...
• refurb 13y ago
  This makes no sense at all. The drugs that are having the most severe shortages are all generics (i.e. no patent, multiple suppliers). One of the big reasons behind the drug shortages is that generics compete on price. Often the profit margins are razor thin on generic drugs. If you encounter a problem with manufacturing, often you'll end up losing money on the whole endeavor. The result is that manufacturers leave the market and focus on drugs where they can actually make money. The brand name drugs have had very few supply issues. When they do, it's usually a manufacturing issue.
  • foobarbazqux 13y ago
    Nationalization of generic drug manufacturing fixes this.
    • refurb 13y ago
      How do you deal with patent issues? Do you really want the gov't involved in challenging patents? A much simpler fix is simply make generic manufacturing more financially attractive.
      • foobarbazqux 13y ago
        How do you make generic manufacturing more attractive? With subsidies? That's a kind of soft nationalization, and is all I meant really. I guess that's different than the government contracting out work to manufacturers, or buying them outright.