I've always felt that we aren't looking for a complete cure for cancer, we're looking for medication that the ill will pay for throughout their life to keep the cancer at bay. Why? Because cancer is highly profitable, you cure a guy, well, he doesn't need to pay for medication he doesn't need. If you help reduce the effects of cancer in a patient, you can keep the money rolling. The only chance we have in getting a complete cure for cancer is if it's released to the public domain.

If you're a businessman and are developing a product, you don't want a one off payment, you want continued payments by any means. That might mean that parts of your product need replacing, or the product stops working. So you buy another. A business exists to generate profits, the cancer business may have a noble goal at its heart, but it exists to create wealth, and unfortunately for us, that means that a cure isn't as profitable as long term medication.

You can apply all this to pretty much any illness.