this is the pill that cures Hepatitis C. This is that pill on big Pharma

[caraher]

19. Misdirected outrage perhaps?

It's pretty hard not to see this as an outrage, but it's easy to direct the blame toward the wrong target.

Drug development is a risky enterprise that perhaps should be funded as a social good, expected not to turn a profit by later drug sales. Could one not imagine a system under which what people pay for a drug is linked to the cost of its production, while development costs (including all failures) are borne by publicly-supported or subsidized research operations?

I realize there are serious real-world challenges... industry labs might outpace a non-profit research institute in coming up with "winners," the profit motive can be a force for good, too... But it also seems like that last part is taken more as an article of faith, and there's no question that any company driven by profit must not devote resources to cures that will not return a profit. So we wind up with a zillion impotence cures while some deadly diseases are neglected.