I can't tell if this is satire. Big pharma is going to cure my Huntington's, and they're even tell me about it before I start to lose mobility? What's the catch?
My guess is they live in the US and they're making their argument under the assumption that the treatment will be enormously expensive and you will have to pay out of pocket for it. In that case you're caught between a rock and a hard place: will I die a slow and painful death due to genetical disease X, or do I go bankrupt paying for it.
In many countries this is a genuine concern I guess. Even in multiple European countries with great healthcare and (nearly) free health insurance, "novel" (and often very expensive) treatments are not always covered.
This meme of becoming bankrupt to pay for drugs doesn't hold water, especially in the long term.
Look at HIV medications. It used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to stay afloat in the 90's, when the drugs were cutting edge.
Fast forward 30 years, and you can find generic antivirals for $110/month. As patents expire, medicines become more affordable. HIV is slowly approaching "cured disease" status in the western world for new infections, and is an increasingly manageable disease for existing infections.
It's better that some people could get the drug in the early days, funding the research that would save millions in the coming generation, even if others couldn't afford it.
The logic in this thread is just flummoxing. So many people irrationally hate companies that make lots of money so vehemently, even if the companies profit by saving lives that would be guaranteed to suffer/die without that company's profit-seeking efforts.
