[Sam_Odio]

> The pricing appears to undercut a notion promoted by FDA officials that approving more generics can help relieve the pocketbook pressure many Americans feel over the cost of their medicines.

I'm surprised the author is making the arugment that more competitiion doesn't drive down prices - despite the large body of evidence to the contrary.

It's accepted belief that when competition fails to drive down pricing among pharmaceuticals, it's usually due to regulatory decisions. There are several studies that have been done on this exact topic, one even finds that price regulation actually leads to higher prices by discouraging market forces [1].

1. https://www.regjeringen.no/globalassets/upload/kilde/hod/hdk...

[Symmetry]

Normally competition means companies can make as many of a product as they want in order to gain market share from each other. FDA regulated drugs often operate on a production quota system where a given company is only allowed to manufacture a pre-approved amount. If the FDA decreased the EpiPen quota by the same amount that the generic was allowed to be produced in then you might not expect to see any reduction in price. Of course they might have just left EpiPen's quota the same, the article doesn't have that sort of information and it might not be publicly available.

[nordsieck]

> FDA regulated drugs often operate on a production quota system where a given company is only allowed to manufacture a pre-approved amount.

My understanding is that this only applies to Schedule I and II drugs.

The Epipen, along with most other pharmaceutical drugs, do not fall under those categories.

[stallmanite]

Are schedule I drugs allowed to be manufactured at all? I thought schedule I meant the FDA has determined that no medical use exists.

[mandevil]

There is no quota on EpiPen production, that is just for highly restricted drugs. (Did you know that cocaine has some medical uses and is almost certainly stocked in the hospital near you? That is the kind of drug that has a quota.)