It’s Easier to Measure the Cost of Health Care than Its Value

How can there be no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola, a disease with a very high death rate that has caused a global public health emergency? The answer is painful but clear: The profit potential from Ebola treatments was too small to interest large manufacturers. Ebola historically has threatened West African countries that have low standards of living. The small Canadian laboratory that produced an experimental vaccine was funded by the Canadian government, and Ebola was chosen as a research target because it is a good model for other infectious diseases.