We really did this wrong. We should get paid for every time the lines are run.
That's SaaS
More directly, like "it costs, like, a penny to download the software to the client, why do we pay so much?" Marginal cost vs. amortized development.
(Making a limited point separate from my general opinions of Big Drug, etc.)
In your example, if it did take a programmer 5 minutes, and they don't have any real accountability anyway (not like a real engineer), then why _are_ we paying them so much?
We can look at what those drugs retail in other countries to see how much price gouging is going on. Turns out it's a lot.
Purchases in the U.S. subsidize those other countries.