america is so fucking based man
in any proper country that company at least gets forced to pay by the government then ordered to shut down forever due to wanton cruelty. all the employees get generous severance except whoever made that call. depending upon your view of carceral punishment there are a few ways to go with that guy.
Pharma companies are basing pricing for these one-time-in-a-life-dose drugs on supply and demand principles. There will never be high demand for these drugs because the conditions are so rare. And only needing to be dosed once for a complete lifetime cure means that there is no recurrent payment happening the way you would have with a drug that needed to be dosed repeatedly over a lifetime.
You’ll hear all the usual excuses about “muh R&D costs 😭😭” but the truth is they’re pricing it this way because they can. Because somewhere in the bible of capitalism, this is the way things work.
(R&D costs are just an excuse for greed: https://www.treatmentactiongroup.org/resources/tagline/tagline-fall-2018/pharma-lies-people-die-myth-busting-fact-sheet-on-medicine-development-and-pricing/)