Comment by s1artibartfast

Most countries do exactly that. determine how much they will pay for a drug based on person years of increased health span. The term you are looking for is quality adjusted life years (QALY). Many European countries will pay up to around €80,000, and sometimes more for cancer treatments. I think France will pay 300k or so for oncology.

Cures are hard. No companies are suppressing cures that would make them tens of billions of dollars out of long term self interest. You take the cash and move on to the next one (or not).

The time value of money means that profits more than 10 years or so into the future are essentially irrelevant compared to money today.