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IMAGINE THAT YOU HAVE just been diagnosed with a particularly aggressive cancer, one that slowly curdles your blood, clogs your lungs, and suffocates your brain. You haven’t got long to live: less than a third of people with your condition live longer than five years past the date of its discovery. And that’s just mere living. Not necessarily savouring, or thriving, or loving—just continuing to breathe, likely in a hospital, possibly in a coma, and maybe on life support.
Now, imagine someone offers you a drug that is guaranteed not only to extend your life for five, ten, even fifteen years, but that could also force your cancer into complete remission and allow you to live a rich, active life into your old age. All you have to do is take this pill once or twice a day. How much would you pay for that pill? How much would you spend to save your own life? Eight thousand rupees a month? What about 80,000—or even 800,000? And if this miracle drug existed, how much should its maker charge you?
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