I disagree with your statement "in some cases". It's "most cases" and where it is not, those are the ones that get the attention and screaming headlines. Shrekl

I disagree with your statement "in some cases". It's "most cases" and where it is not, those are the ones that get the attention and screaming headlines. Shrekli is in the news precisely because this behavior is not normal. But generally, much like other goods, drugs are priced based on how much the consumer values them. I will also add, that for really big ticket things like oncology drugs, I believe every company offers payment assistance programs which often have very high income cutoffs that provide co-pay help or outright free drugs when insurance doesn't cover it. Marketing is a red-herring. Sales and marketing should bring in more money than you spend on them or they're not worth doing. They exist to drive money This makes the company more profitable in the near term than R&D expenditure which can take decades to materialize.