Its not the cost of research and discovery thats costing a fortune. Its compliance with the fed.
It costs $500,000,000 to get a drug or compound to market.
Well, there is that, of course. But, if someone is sick, they don't (understandably) ask what their cost options are. They ask for the best possible care. If you want the best house, or the best car, you are constrained by the cold realities of the marketplace. But with health care, you ask for the best, regardless of your economic status, largely because there is someone else who will foot the bill. We get a new drug, or a new technology, and everybody wants it. Again, I get that, but the system becomes overburdened by it.
This is why I hate this 'health care is a right' nonsense. Suppose they come up with a treatment for, I dunno, diabetes. It's a miracle treatment, but it costs a billion dollars a patient. But, health care is a right, so someone HAS to pay for it, even if it bankrupts your economy. The absence of market forces will do these sorts of things.
It costs $500,000,000 to get a drug or compound to market.$0.5 to $1.5 billion and 10 years on average, with the clock on the patent ticking the whole time. Out of every 10,000 compounds that enter the clinical testing phase 1-2 will make it to market.