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You’re wrong. Even if a new medication only cures symptoms, it is still a cure--at least of the symptoms, which can be very important, as in eliminating pain, making possible continued vision, the ability to walk, and so on.
Patented medication that can achieve a full, permanent cure can be sold for vastly more money than medication that must be repeated over and over again. It might even be sold at a price rivaling that of a surgery. So pharma companies will certainly offer such drugs if they can.
(BTW, by your logic, surgeons would cut only so deep and be sure to leave some infected tissue behind, in order to have to keep on repeating the surgery. Do you think they do that?)
Also, the higher price of a medicine that fully cures has a higher present value than an equivalent sum of smaller payments stretched out over time.
E.g., $10,000 paid today for a full cure can easily be worth twice as much as $10,000 paid in 10 $1,000 installments over 10 years. It depends on the rate of discount. At a rate of discount of 15% per year, the $10,000 stretched over 10 years is worth less than $5,000 paid today.
Furthermore, imagine a pharma company that is offering a medication that only cures symptoms. And now another pharma company appears on the scene with a drug that effects a full cure. Which one will win?
Also, you seem to think that the only people who will ever have this disease are being treated today. So that the pharma company would have no more customers if they were fully cured.
The pharma company can have a steady stream of customers, resulting from new people getting the disease and needing to be cured.
The reason that we don’t have more new drugs is that government agencies, such as the FDA, stand in the way. Until recently, they were busy protecting even dying people from trying new drugs before years and years of testing. Avoid dangerous side-effects even if it kills you.
I see a reluctance to admit that people can really gain by dealing with others who make a profit on them. To all who feel that way, I say, don’t deal with anyone who profits by dealing with you. Be sure they gain nothing or lose. See where that takes you.
