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249 points randycupertino | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.24s | source
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stego-tech ◴[] No.45949690[source]
I feel kinda bad for the writer, because it's a good question: no, curing patients is not a good business model, just like public transit is not a good business model.

What a lot of folks neglect are N+1-order effects, because those are harder to quantify and fail to reach the predetermined decision some executive or board or shareholder has already made. Is curing patients a bad business model? Sure, for the biotech company it is, but those cured patients are far more likely to go on living longer, healthier lives, and in turn contribute additional value to society - which will impact others in ways that may also create additional value. That doesn't even get into the jobs and value created through the R&D process, testing, manufacturing, logistics of delivery, ongoing monitoring, etc. As long as the value created is more than the cost of the treatment, then it's a net-gain for the economy even if it's a net loss for that singular business.

If all you're judging is the first-order impacts on a single business, you're missing the forest for the trees.

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1. DrScientist ◴[] No.45952894[source]
There are also higher order effects in terms of business model - if you look at the broader business model of health care.

A concrete examples abound in the infectious disease space - many antibiotics are curative of something that would otherwise be fatal - and while there isn't a huge amount of money in antibiotics it has in effect contributed to the larger market of older people's diseases like cancer.

Every intervention simply delays death - and the older you get the more health care you need.