Drug Shortages - Alex Tabarrok

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/06/drug-shortages.html

This is a case where regulation clearly has missed its mark. This is not to say that medicines or medical supplies should be have their industries stripped of regulation; there are a lot of good reasons to make the introduction of drugs a stringent process.
It seems pretty obvious to suggest that these regulations be rolled back, which is what I am suggesting, but many times when we encounter a ludicrous legal or regulatory construct, there was a novel reason it was put into place in the first place, often by those who would call for its immediate removal the loudest.
Some of the commenters on this article suggest that perhaps it was rent seeking competitors in the pahrma industry who lobbied for these onerous regulations, in order to erect entry barriers. That seems more logical to me then supposing government agents who rub their hands together in anticipation of making things complicated. It sometimes ends up that way, but rarely does it start that way.