[read_if_gay_]

Let me repeat. If treatment brings in more profit than cure, and you and your competitors have a treatment, then it is in none of your interests to bring out the cure, since anyone who does it would reduce their own profit besides killing that of their competitors.

There is no "global conspiracy" required at all. Not actively doing research towards reducing your own profit is enough.

Outsiders could theoretically come in, yes. But the hurdles are huge for biotech startups, and of course the established players are lobbying to keep it this way, so I won't be holding my breath. It's different from the tech world.

[travmatt]

Any business who followed your logic would be then vulnerable to the first competitor who was willing to sell the cure instead. To prevent that from happening, it would take a global conspiracy of every company who could develop said drug, along with the complicity of every scientist who knew about said research and who would be tempted to develop or leak its it themselves.

[read_if_gay_]

Established players have no incentive to fund the research and every incentive to keep the difficulty of curing illnesses at scale high to keep new players out.

There is no need for a global conspiracy. Just a little lobbying.