Another vote for government-made generics

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has endorsed an idea that has thus far united some disparate thinkers: Let the government manufacture generics.

Corbyn explained the notion in a white paper called Medicines for the Many, which outlines what Labour would do if it won control of the U.K. The basic idea is that the generics market is rife with price-fixing, collusion, and gouging, problems that could be solved by a taxpayer-funded manufacturer that could provide off-brand drugs on the cheap.

If it sounds familiar, that’s perhaps because Sen. Elizabeth Warren made a similar proposal last year, although her idea would have the government manufacture pills only in cases of shortages or monopolistic price increases, like the one that made Martin Shkreli famous.

What’s interesting is that Shkreli himself thinks it’s a fine idea. “I think the government should start a drug company,” he told Fox Business in 2017, arguing that generic drugs were essentially utilities and ought to be regulated as such.