Peeved by price gouging and shortages, hospitals will now make their own drugs

For four of the country’s largest hospital systems, enough is enough.

Sick of drug companies’ eye-popping price hikes and ridiculous shortages, the feisty hospital systems announced Wednesday that they’ve banded together and formed an unnamed non-profit to make their own steady supply of affordable generic medicines.

The leading hospital system, Intermountain Healthcare, released a statement explaining:

The new company intends to be an FDA approved manufacturer and will either directly manufacture generic drugs or sub-contract manufacturing to reputable contract manufacturing organizations, providing patients an affordable alternative to products from generic drug companies whose capricious and unfair pricing practices are damaging the generic drug market and hurting consumers. The company will also seek to stabilize the supply of essential generic medications administered in hospitals, many of which have fallen into chronic shortage.

Standing with Intermountain Healthcare is Ascension, SSM Health, and Trinity Health. The US Department of Veterans Affairs is also collaborating with the group. Together, they represent more than 450 hospitals across the country.

In an interview with The New York Times, Intermountain Healthcare’s CEO, Dr. Marc Harrison, did not mince words. “This is a shot across the bow of the bad guys,” he said. “We are not going to lay down. We are going to go ahead and try and fix it.”