You don't need to be an expert in economics to recognize that when kids get cancer and need either expensive or unprofitable treatments, capitalism clashes with medical ethics and basic human decency. In childhood cancer, unprofitability can actually be the bigger threat than high cost.
Many forms of childhood cancer are curable with cheap, tried-and-true generic drugs — meaning that industry isn't eager to make these prescriptions, so they aren't always available when a child needs them.
Sometimes hard-to-get drugs can be ordered from other hospitals, but often patients get a different drug regimen instead, said Yoram Unguru, a pediatric oncologist at the Herman and Walter Samuelson Children's Hospital at Sinai, in Baltimore. These second-choice drugs don't always work as well.