Current pricing for mRNA vaccines is something in the $4-7 dollars (that's $7.00 dollars, not $7,000.00 dollars) range. Compare that to one of the Hepatitis C treatments, which costs north of $350,000 by several accounts. Even remdesivir is something like $3000 for a course.
There are roughly 75 million HCV infections in the world.
That translates to a total cure cost of:
75M * $350k = $26.25T
There are other ARV treatments available which cost now roughly $50-100k and cure in 3 months.
Whereas immunizing everyone against coronaviruses currently costs:
8B * $7 = $56B
Clearly, the costs of the HCV cure are predatory and unreasonable because it doesn't lead to eradication and it's inaccessible to the poor and the third-world.
The true unit cost is probably $6 per dose. The COVID vaccines may break-even short-term. Long-term, it's probably worth keeping an extra 120M potential customers alive for what will probably result in a small profit.
The true unit cost of HCV cures is unknowable but possibly half of the current price.
