I recall being a student in the biomedical electronics/biomedical devices lab and was curious about one piece of equipment that cost about ~10k EUR.
The device is relatively simple to make so I asked my teacher why were they so expensive. He said that yeah, the engineering/manufacturing side of it is about 200 EUR, the remaining 9.8k EUR is spent on certifications/paperwork.
Obviously, wages factor into this but over time I've come to see how paperwork and paying lawyers do in fact account for the majority of the cost.
The device is relatively simple to make so I asked my teacher why were they so expensive. He said that yeah, the engineering/manufacturing side of it is about 200 EUR, the remaining 9.8k EUR is spent on certifications/paperwork.
Obviously, wages factor into this but over time I've come to see how paperwork and paying lawyers do in fact account for the majority of the cost.