"Big Pharma" is as bad as you think it is, I know from working with them.
I used to work with prescription benefits and insurance consumers. I don't want to give too many details due to some NDA stuff, but part of my job allowed me to see the manufacturer costs vs sale cost of drugs.
it was very rewarding to be able to help people find paths to being able to afford their medication, but the hardest part of the job was when they definitely couldn't.
it was a rare occurrence, but every now and then I would speak to cancer patients. The most notable was a father of an 8 year old with cancer. this is the one I'll use as an example because this is the one that hurts the most.
insurance wouldn't cover it, I tried a s hard as I could. this man cried on the phone with me because he couldn't afford the roughly $24,000 (USD) treatment for his 8 year old daughter.
I wasn't allowed to disclose details, but the manufacturing cost of this particular drug was $23. I was rather young when I worked here, and this gave me one of my biggest losses of faith in humanity.