How should cures be priced?

[Hazir]

Well it is interesting of course this rent vs buying price story, but I must say I find it somewhat odd that both seem to be dictated more by what the renter/buyer can afford than anything else. This becomes blatantly obvious in Hiv treatment which (produced under license) costs a fraction in the third world of what it costs in the US and EU.

[Aimless]

Well it is interesting of course this rent vs buying price story, but I must say I find it somewhat odd that both seem to be dictated more by what the renter/buyer can afford than anything else. This becomes blatantly obvious in Hiv treatment which (produced under license) costs a fraction in the third world of what it costs in the US and EU.

It's not all that odd. It's often more profitable to be able to sell to more people at the prices they can afford rather than only selling at high prices to the wealthiest. As long as you can keep rich and poor markets separate it can be a good deal for pharma companies. As an added bonus, it increases access to very important treatments, at least in theory. In practice you might see the kind of segmentation where poor markets get access to outdated and inferior (albeit subsidized) treatments while wealthier markets have greater access to the latest and greatest, eg. expensive cures to costly illnesses. Of course, this may still be better than the alternative.