The Pharma industry has a term for drugs that have a very small market and are life critical and thus require government assistance — ”Orphan Drugs”. AIDS Drugs I think were the most famous example. Possible other funding comes from NGO’s.

I worked in finance at Eli Lilly, and Pharma companies don’t make as much money as you think because of the massive costs to discover and develop (bring to market, test for safety and efficacy) over long periods of time, the ROI is not as high as the gross margins would suggest and profitability is pretty much in line with most other businesses (with similar risk levels…ie the market beta)

Like you said other companies don’t enter the market to make this drug because of the economics.

Everything Pharma bro asshole said is technically true, even his assertion that more profits mean more R&D. But of course, there is the humanity factor which affects branding. I don’t know why the previous owners choose to keep the price low, whereas Pharma bro asshole might have human DNA, but he’s clearly possessed by the devil trying to show just how inhuman economics can be.

People in the Pharma industry are well aware of the need to make $ (it is a business), but the standard of care in that business is different — much higher. And once would expect a company to at least make an announcement and ramp up prices slowly, but a competive / derivatives based stock market and startup / tech culture is clearly putting the pressure on eliminating barriers to ROI..just look at Bad Blood Betty Homes at Theranos..easier to swindle people if there is nobody on the board with medical experience.