I think some regulation is needed though. I can't look at a generic white pill and tell whether it's oxycodone or acetaminophen. Also, I don't want to take your acetaminophen if it hasn't been proven that whatever is in it won't cause other more serious issues or that I've at least been adequately informed of those side-effects on the front-end.

R&D is also in-part expensive because of the success rate of drug trials and the expertise necessary to conduct the experiments. I'm mostly a free-market proponent, but when a corporations own interests collide with the larger market's interests by killing or otherwise removing a large portion of the productive population from the workforce, I believe there should be regulation.