You wouldn't believe how much money it takes to bring a drug to market. There are three clinical phases a drug must go through and on some drugs it can take a decade or longer before the FDA approves it. If it is a specialty drug that will not sell as much as something that treats a common problem, it is going to cost more. The company is in business to make money. The company has exclusive use of their drug until the patent is up. Once that happens it can be manufactured in generic form and the cost will be significantly reduced. The original maker of the drug has to make it's money back and profit in that time period.
There is even more to factor in than just that one drugs costs. Most drugs that start clinical trials never make it to market, the cost must be absorbed by the products that do, that's just the way business works regardless of the product, any business.
Our healthcare system is broken no doubt, drug companies are just one part of it. Allowing anybody into an emergency room to access healthcare for any reason they want regardless of their ability to pay or if they are even a citizen in the US drives everything up exponentially. And now that we are paying for everyone's healthcare expect everything to continue to go up, not down as the new law was sold to us. This includes drugs. Now you are paying for yours and theirs.
You can't force a company to invest 1 billion dollars in a product over ten years (yes, 1 billion) and then sell it for a loss because people can't afford it. If that was the case there would be no new drugs for anybody. All the drug companies have some type of program for those that cannot afford drugs, whether this drug is available needs to be determined. But the drug companies do their fair share of charity work. They flat give away a large amount of their product here and abroad.
This is getting way off the subject though. Smullen, there may very well be a program for those who's insurance doesn't cover this drug and cannot afford it. I would contact the pharmaceutical company directly first. If not there may be other drugs to treat the problem that your mothers insurance does cover, or the cost is less or does have an assistance program. Good luck brother....