People ascribe malice to drug development when simple economics explains things easily. Incredibly high initial capital cost (development, safety, and testing

People ascribe malice to drug development when simple economics explains things easily. Incredibly high initial capital cost (development, safety, and testing + calendar time for same) + low probability for success (efficacy and no safety issues) = high minimum floor to drug development costs When faced with that reality, how are you going to choose between alternative capital investments if you're running a pharma company? Of course you're going to preferentially develop drugs that (a) will have continued, high volume demand throughout the patent period & (b) address a disease unlikely to be cured.