Just the fact that you get push back on work like that suggests to me that these companies will never cure anything. They will treat absolutely disease, but cure nothing.
Have you not had a family member or close friend cured of disease that would have killed them a hundred years ago, thanks to modern pharma drug? I sure have.
No, not personally, I do have 2 on life long treatments. But I was being too hyperbolic and I don't doubt your story.
I'm just extrapolating incentives. Is there any incentive to cure (invoice once), when they can treat (life long invoices)? Certainly scorn is irrelevant as OPs comment suggests they're unwilling to work on rare diseases. And these companies are public. They have shareholders that expect them to constantly grow.
I don't believe it's a stretch to say, at the very least, the incentive is there.
competion provides the incentive, a cure will put all your treatment competitors out of business as you get everything from everyone who doesn't like treatment.
You know many people who would have died of smallpox,measles, polio, and the like 100 years ago, you just have no idea who those people are.
To be clear, I still think this conversation goes on in the background. Bill Gates famously convinced Oxford not to give the covid vaccine IP away thus preventing poorer countries from creating their own vaccines. The deaths from this act alone should be enough to convince you that money makes medicine murkier than you clearly want to believe.
Sometimes I share this feeling, but then I think about all the loved ones who were cured of some disease that would have been deadly 50 years ago. I don't think it's the pharma companies that are responsible for this. They are for-profit entities. Our governments should create the necessary business environment which will encourage these companies to work more for the people.
