The only way to improve the availability of these products is to make it possible for firms to keep pace with rising production costs and earn enough returns to invest back in better manufacturing that enables stable, safe, and more scalable supply.

Policies enacted over the last few decades have systematically eroded the ability of manufacturers to earn returns on certain drugs, especially older parenteral drugs sold as generics. We need to reform the policies governing these markets if we're going to lure investment back into these important areas.

Until government price controls are lifted, the makers of generics will be unable to cover their production costs.

In his new book, “Phake: The Deadly World of Falsified and Substandard Medicines,” Roger Bate explores the underground trade in illegal medicines that kills over 100,000 people per year and supplants billions of dollars of real products.

Knowing where all our ingredients come from is the first step toward improving drug quality.

Drug shortages, drug costs, the questionable quality of over-the-counter medicines: myriad issues have developed in pharmaceuticals in an era of enhanced regulatory efforts, rising healthcare costs and a global economy in which drug components are manufactured around the world.

With fakes of the cancer drug Avastin popping up in U.S. clinics in the past few months, patients are naturally worried about whether their medicines are safe.  Considering eighty percent of the ingredients in U.S. medicines come from overseas – mostly from China and India because their products are generally...