Comment by ninetyninenine
5 hours ago
It makes sense to people who are smart. People who are biased who don't have the intelligence to think why someone will say something is bad and can only think in terms of simple analogies will of course think it makes no sense. This is because their basic faculties don't make sense themselves.
Let me spell it out why someone would say it's a bad business model:
There are Superior business models that are sustainable and last forever. This is better than a business model which has a temporary lifespan. When given two options, one is worse than the other hence they call the worse option a "bad business model"
Get it? Does that make sense? There's more diseases and health issues to tackle then there are available biotech companies so there are PLENTY of better business models to choose from then "curing a disease"
The second reason is that this isn't exactly a gold mine. It's not like it's discovered out of nowhere. You have to invest billions and that investment Does not guarantee a return. If any sane person wanted to gamble that much money on something they would gamble their money on the bigger win. Insulin at 60 a month or a cure for diabetes as a one time 60 dollar fee? Which is better?
Do. the. math. and. think.
I'm sorry, but if you _actually_ think about it, your whole premise is ridiculous.
We'll put aside the obvious fact that drug researchers are, you know, people who presumably got into the industry to help people, which includes themselves and their families.
We'll also put aside the fact that drugs go out of patent relatively quickly, and they'd just lose out to generics. Like they do now.
The simple truth is they don't need to manufacture more clients, because a stream already exists. There are always new people developing new diseases and new issues. There's an incentive to come up with new and better tools to pull money away from generics.
Don't fall prey to paranoid thinking, actually think about it.