For years, hospitals have been dealing with sharp drug price increases and shortages. To combat these problems, hospitals are going into the drug manufacturing business. A group of major hospital systems plans to form a nonprofit company that will provide several generic drugs to the hospitals—either by manufacturing them or working with a third-party manufacturer.
The goal of the effort is to challenge the many companies that take advantage of the market by buying up monopolies of off-patent drugs and then raising prices. Everyone remembers when Martin Shkreli raised the price of an older drug from $13.50 per tablet to $750.
The Association for Accessible Medicines, the generic manufacturers’ trade group, says it welcomes the competition, and some drug shortage experts indicate that increasing suppliers will help.
