Only when the day arrives that extraordinarily talented scientists don't need to be paid high salaries, labs are free, manufacturing facilities are free, quality control & distribution are free, decades of research are free, etc.
Quick math example: how much does it cost - all in - to hire & retain just 100 top notch biotech personnel for 10 years?
The $300 HepC cure mentioned can only exist because of the extremely expensive R&D investment made over many years by the companies (such as Pharmasset) & public health entities that made HepC cures possible in the first place. They're free riding, so of course their context is always going to be far cheaper: they don't have to recoup nearly as much investment, and they have no concern for generating a profit at $300 so they can invest saved capital into the next 20 years of paying for expensive research.
>Quick math example: how much does it cost - all in - to hire & retain just 100 top notch biotech personnel for 10 years?
I'm going to guess close to $180M in present-day dollars.
Edit:
And that's just if they sit around doing nothing but collecting salary and benefits. Facilities, equipment, and supplies will be much cheaper than personell, but still expensive.
Quick math example: how much does it cost - all in - to hire & retain just 100 top notch biotech personnel for 10 years?
The $300 HepC cure mentioned can only exist because of the extremely expensive R&D investment made over many years by the companies (such as Pharmasset) & public health entities that made HepC cures possible in the first place. They're free riding, so of course their context is always going to be far cheaper: they don't have to recoup nearly as much investment, and they have no concern for generating a profit at $300 so they can invest saved capital into the next 20 years of paying for expensive research.