When people intentionally misconstrue what you say using edge cases

The Trump administration recently touted their efforts on reducing drug prices for Americans, especially Americans on Medicaid. What an achievement. Although let's face it, drug companies are villainised for basically maintaining a successful business by filling a gap in the market, or addressing needs. Obviously, if those problems did not exist, then drug companies wouldn't exist either, to provide solutions to said problems. Disease can be categorised into preventable and non-preventable. Individuals can take actions to avoid the former, while they have little to no choice with regards to the latter.

Regardless of the type of disease, research and development is time consuming and costly, and it is obvious that a lot of investment is required to produce a successful drug. It is also obvious that investors will want to recoup the costs they faced during the discovery process, and make a profit to be able to fund future projects, as well as to continue existing as a company. This is how any economic agent operates, be it a business, the government and even an individual/ family unit. You need revenue to cover your expenses.

Now as I commented in my previous post (Budget products), pricing rules aren't always transparent and since dynamic pricing is used, it gives off the impression that firms can somehow afford to lower prices. However, it should also be obvious that prices set by e.g. drug companies, need to cover the costs they faced to produce said drugs. I don't believe anyone is expecting firms to operate like the government, i.e. on a loss the majority of the time. Firms would have to exit the market if that were the case, because which entity would want to perpetually finance them?

This is why it is highly toxic and manipulative when mainstream media use edge cases like rare diseases with a very low prevalence rate, to state the obvious that drug discovery is risky and thus expensive, therefore the cost to the patient to access the drug comes with a hefty price tag. Why wouldn't it? The treatment took researchers decades of trial and error to figure out a successful solution, and investors had to make risky investment decisions. Accurately, however, it does become a communal problem. (Note: I am not saying drug companies are squeaky clean angels either.)

This is also why, I get upset when people complain about the cost of treating preventable diseases. On average, if individuals made a concerted effort to take accountability of their own health, and shape their habits to achieve better health outcomes, they may not need to depend on drug companies, and thus face their high prices.