&gt; the US government could start making the company look like jerks by offering $50 billion for the patent<p>Pretend you were in charge of Medicare&#x2F;Medicaid. The NPV of the lifetime care cost of the HepC symptoms of each HepC patient on your rolls is $X. You want to encourage someone to develop a cure for HepC, so you put out a price bid for what you will pay someone who shows up with a cure. What price do you offer?