Walter Olson of OverLawyered writes in Yes, that $750 generic pill is a pure artifact of regulation:
if another company wanted to compete to sell the same medicine [Daraprim], it would need to apply for a new generic drug approval, by submitting an ‘Abbreviated New Drug Application’ to the FDA. Filing one of these applications with the FDA used to cost as little as $1 million; today it can run as high as $20 million, sometimes more.
Is that a resonable description of the status quo? Is it that expensive to get new generics approved by the FDA?