True Shortage of Critical Drugs or A Price Hike Coming?

Read article here:
Medication shortage woes persist - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

'via Blog this'

"What is happening -- and not just with doxycylcine -- is a continuing problem of shortages among formerly common medications. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration website, www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/DrugShortages/ucm050792.htm, currently lists more than 100 medications in short supply".

This is one of those chin scratching moments.  When something like this happens most people would be asking why.  Why is there a shortage and when will the medications be available again?

We should expect to see such a shortage due to a pandemic or epidemic but we've had neither.  We do know that the US military has stock piles of medications and that Tetracycline and Doxy are stored in mass quantities.  We are left to assume then that maybe it's time for those supplies to be replenished.  But since that is common knowledge why are we not being told of the cause of the shortage?

A huge percentage of our medications are manufactured in Brazil, India and other areas around the world.  So, is this shortage due to a dispute with those companies?  Or better yet is this a price hike?  A tactic that if pulled in this country could be illegal. Perhaps it's not illegal elsewhere, then this shortage could be a manufactured shortage to raise the price of prescription drugs.  

The United States has one of the highest costs for medication in the world. We (the patients) can't afford any more increases in the cost of our medications.

We need to seriously make a bigger effort to bring manufacturing back to our shores again. Not just medication but all the other items that are now made over seas that we rely on. Clothing, toothpaste, dog and cat food, medications, weapons for our military and many many other items.

Something about this shortage smells really putrid, lets bring it back home again where we do have some control over the amounts and quality of the pharmaceutical industry.