How can drug makers sleep well knowing that even children are dying every day because of the high prices they set for new cancer treatments?

I don't believe in any conspiracy theory other than the global health conspiracy. Just look at the statistics of how many people are on insulin! It is simply not profitable for the modern pharmacological empire to allow drugs for the same AIDS, diabetes, cancer on the market, although they could have been developed within the last 10-20 years. I won't even talk about vaccination

And what do you feel when someone dies, just because others (including you) did not give him money, did not give all your fortune.

The answer is nothing, or almost nothing.

Your question is a little wrong. Why should their sleep be disturbed? After all, they do not spread diseases, but make medicines for them, and want to get paid for their work. It is not their fault that people get sick.

Many drugs are made for the future!
Previously, computed tomography cost fabulous money, now every second one is done (there were ways and methods to make this procedure cheaper).
The same parallel can be drawn with these drugs: Who knows, maybe this plant uses super costly ways to obtain this or that medicine. There are 7 billion people on the planet, who knows, maybe someone among them, knows a way to obtain the same substance, only much cheaper. The whole problem is that there is too much of the drug, and almost all of them are at the stage of clinical trials, so they will find a really effective drug, logisticians and other specialists will find ways to reduce the cost of production.
A pharmaceutical company about a worldwide conspiracy (there are drugs for HIV, etc.) ) I will not speak. Let's believe that everything is not so bad. Health.

They can sleep peacefully thanks to the belief that, despite the high cost of drugs, they still saved several lives. The price of a drug depends, first of all, on the funds spent on its production, and not on the greed of manufacturers. If pharmacies begin to sell massively drugs that require expensive production at meager prices, then very soon these drugs will cease to be produced, because there will be no funds to create them. Alas, you cannot save everyone, but you can save some. And it's not just the wealthy, charities also give many low-income people the opportunity to receive expensive treatment.

You assume that there is a world in which medicines are cheap and there is enough for everyone. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. The alternative to a world where new and advanced drugs are expensive is a world where there are no drugs at all. Developing new drugs is expensive, requiring the efforts of dozens, if not hundreds, of medical researchers around the world. Drugs are also often expensive to produce. No way has been invented to make medicines cheap in such a situation. Penicillin, for example, is now very cheap, because they learned to produce it on a large scale long ago.

Well, I also propose to reformulate the question: how can drug manufacturers sleep peacefully, knowing that thanks to the drugs they produce, a huge number of people? If there were no drug manufacturers, many more people would die from disease than now.

Thanks for the answer, but:

1. "Rumors about the profitability of the medical business (if not considering the pharmacy) are greatly exaggerated." - Pfff ...

2. "Treatment prices are set by the market." - Pfff - 2. There is no market under monopoly. The monopolist sets the price.

3. What do ROI have in common and, for example, the general rule of exception for children. Or should these children be considered "martyrs" who died in the name of science?! ..

4. The question is not about the capitalist component, but about the human one.

I recommend reading the book "Atlas Shrugged". There it is very clear and in the smallest detail set out all thoughts about the correctness of capitalism and why Robin Hood is wrong.

And if you answer the question briefly, but not quite accurately: new methods of cancer treatment appeared due to high prices. If it were not for the return on investment, then they would not have appeared at all. From the word "absolutely". They would not exist.

Rumors about the profitability of the medical business (if not considering the pharmacy) are greatly exaggerated. Treatment prices are set by the market.

And yes, life isn't fair. Especially to those who ask questions about fairness.