Dan Crawford:
The only commonality is that all of the medications we have seen in shortage status are off patent, generic medications, that are harder to formulate than various others and have a definable shelf life.
President Obama has signed legislation that will give the FDA more latitude in heading off shortages, but this problem plainly reports to a market problem.
Demand exists, buyers are stable, but profits are not high on these medications. This would suggest that companies are simply avoiding generics and focusing on more profitable patented medications.