Given a cure (not a "maintenance" drug), companies would "sell the hell out of" that product until there were no more customers; then the market would collapse

Given a cure (not a "maintenance" drug), companies would "sell the hell out of" that product until there were no more customers; then the market would collapse and the corporation would go bankrupt. The medical market is slightly more "graceful" in that new customers enter the market each generation. This is not "popular narrative", it's established economic reality for any good that can be either rented or sold. Compare selling vs renting a software package. Once a market is saturated no more sales can be made and the seller's company will likely collapse. In contrast, a renter collects each year until the software is superceded (but can add improvements each year to postpone that) or no longer useful. I once worked for a company that sold a software package for a one-time (large) purchase fee plus a trivial annual maintenance fee. The employees walked the halls puzzling "What happens when we sell our last package?". Answer: company saw the light and tried to change from a purchase model to a rental model. All customers revolted and some threatened to sue (for software support ad infinitum). The company collapsed. Luckily I was gone by then. And yes, the MBAs are responsible largely: they do good b/c they can tell you what business model to use to achieve your goals. Few industries are more concerned about how to make money than the pharmaceutical industry: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=business+models+for+pharmaceuticals https://duckduckgo.com/?q=business+models+for+pharmaceutical... But we also need corporations that are willing to develop true cures instead of "managements". Most MBA's aren't interested in that; maybe government can help by providing better incentives.