At $170,000 a dose no doubt.
And you’re paying for it.
But there won’t be enough to go around when you or your family catches Ebola on a plane or from some sick food service person.
Unfortunately, it costs a lot of money, and time, to bring a drug to market.
Everyone involved, from the support staff, to the scientists, to the medical consultants wants to earn a nice paycheck, especially those with advanced degree's.
If an auto worker can get $30/hour to install a windshield in a car, then an MD/PhD pharmaceutical scientist working on a molecular biology based cure for a scourge like ebola should be able to earn at least that, if not double or triple. It's just how the world works.
The estimated average cost to bring 1 drug to market is between $648,000,000 and $2,700,000,000. [1] [2][3]
The estimated average time ( from initial discovery to the marketplace and all the phases in between) to bring a drug to market is 10 years. [1][2][3]
Then, there is the very high percentage of failures in the process. Only an estimated 1 of every 10 drugs investigated make it to market. A 90% "failure" rate. That's lots of time and money spent on something they can never make money on. [1][2][3]
Cost is always going to be an issue with those kinds of numbers involved.
I'd rather have a chance of a cure at $170,000 price tag, than no chance of a cure because there was no drug company willing or able to create one.