While Big Pharma claims that the reason for the high pricing is based on a need to recoup research and development costs, they call this out for the lie that it is:
Pharmaceutical research and development is largely subsidized by taxpayer dollars, with little risk to drug companies. Indeed, pharmaceutical companies, which are collectively worth hundreds of billions, have extremely comfortable profit margins. On average, their net profits are greater than those of any other industry. The truth is, high drug prices are the cost of drug corporation greed and nothing else.