If lots of manufacturers were all manufacturers, this article wouldn't have been written. In truth, the vast majority of expensive drugs aren't being replaced by distributors or manufacturers, or the Shelf Life Extension program for the government would not be saving $2B a year.
And don't blame the victims, which is what your sentence on inventory management does. If a hospital over-estimates patients usage of a drug and gets stuck with expired drugs due to excessively shortened expiry dates, that's on the maker. The maker knows the real expiry dates, usage can never be anything but an estimate.
I would suggest you read up on the Shelf Life Extension Program. It's a specific program around either limited use products or products where the gov't hold such large stockpiles that companies won't take returns, it just wouldn't make sense. The most likely scenario is one where the products are never used.
I had a friend who worked on the federal Tamiflu stockpiles. The gov't and the manufacturer have a deal where the gov't gets a significant rebate on unused product that is either put back into circulation or the manufacturer buys it back and destroys it.
Remember, the gov't has companies competitively bid on manufacturing these products (particularly for generics which were most of the examples in the article). Is the company going to give a 100% money back guarantee if it's not used? Would you? I wouldn't.
So yes, there are certain scenarios (stockpiling) where manufacturers don't take back product. That's not most scenarios.
Most scenarios are hospitals holding 30-45 days on hand of product. If they screw up their inventory they should pay a penalty not the manufacturer.
And don't blame the victims, which is what your sentence on inventory management does. If a hospital over-estimates patients usage of a drug and gets stuck with expired drugs due to excessively shortened expiry dates, that's on the maker. The maker knows the real expiry dates, usage can never be anything but an estimate.