A large part of the cost is due to the high cost of bringing the drug to market. I’ve read that amount is up to $200 million and the pharmaceutical companies hae only a few years to recoup their investment.
I have talked to pharmaceutical people about this. For every medication they bring to market, they investigate and spend varying amounts of money on 100 others. I am sympathetic to this problem.
What you didn’t calculate in, is how much money the pharmaceutical companies can make off one medication.
Around 1990 a well known pharmaceutical company brought over a medication it developed in Europe. It marketed the medication in the United States for about one year.
In that year they made over $100 million dollars. Don’t think of one bottle, think of multiple bottles in every hospital, pharmacy, and wholesaler in the United States, and thousands of people in every berg in the U. S. having a bottle or prescription in their home. It really adds up quick.
The price per bottle on this item was about $10.00.
Come to find out, it caused medical problems and the pharmaceutical company hid that from the FDA. Fine? As I recall it wound up being zero.
They were fined, but not required to pay. I don’t remember the full particulars now.
$100,000 a year treatment for one individual is way out of line.
Remember, we have other cancer fighters. None of them have even come close to that yearly fee. They always make money, believe me.
I defend pharmaceutical companies too, so I don’t just go after them.