Nothing. Its to do with getting back the millions invested in the R&D. Do you even have the slightest idea how much it costs to develop these drugs? Often the rewards for the actual people who do the R&D are pretty poor.

> Often the rewards for the actual people who do the R&D are pretty poor.

It seems to be in line with the this [1] comment but due to completely different reasons. If you have some insight into money allocation in a drug company could give an answer to the linked comment?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5472861

If you are first to market with a drug (RealGoodDrug tm) against X. Then you can test your RealGoodDrug tm against a placebo.

If you are second to market you have to test your drug against RealGoodDrug tm and not against a placebo (because that would be immoral).

So you can't come up with a half good drug, or a just as good drug with more side-effects.