As value based health solutions are getting popular, medicines should also be affordable and widely available. So, several major hospital groups launched their own generic drug company to combat chronic shortages and high prices. The new company, Civica Rx is planning to start 14 widely used hospital drugs long in short supply. The company hasn’t disclosed the drugs’ names for competitive reasons but, the list includes a mix of generic pills, patches and injectable drugs for treating infections, pain and heart conditions, as informed by board chairman Dan Liljenquist.

He also said that the mission of Civica is to ensure that these drugs remain in the public domain; they should be available and affordable to everyone. Drug shortages have been common for around a decade now, especially inexpensive generic drugs, due to manufacturers consolidation, halting the production of low profit medicines and having to fix manufacturing challenges.

Particularly hospitals are hard hit and must frequently scramble to find scarce medicines, often at hiked prices or come up with workarounds that may not be that effective or safe for patients. Civica will create reliable supply for its 500 hospitals and it aims to reduce drug prices by about 20%.