Yeah, I think mdien was rushed to market. It should have been more broadly tested, and then priced decently in 5mg tabs. M4AD is a ridiculous product, which I don't know why it ever saw the light of day -- "Hey I found something that looks like **** on paper - let's run with it." Mdien, in theory, showed incredible promise -- which it then failed to measure up to.
As to the overhead incurred by VPX, I realize that there is a big difference compared to a garage operation. Nonetheless, the volume you move kind of belies the claims of having to feed the kids. If the owner pays a million in salaries, but sells a million bottles of stuff in a year, that accounts for $1/bottle. Whatever the overhead of VPX, this is not why its products are so expensive. VPX also gets volume deals on its production that are unthinkable for small-fries. I don't fail to realize that VPX is a business, I said that it is good for you that it is so successful, I just find it hilarious that people are willing to pay enormous sums of cash when there are other, immensely more economical ways of doing it. I brief, I am as in awe as I can be at the money-making genius of VPX. And no, I am not trying to be sarcastic.
As to the car company analogy, that probably don't want to use that one. Last year the car manufacturers lost $600 million in terms of ticket pricing vs production costs, BUT they made $1200 million on "low cost" financing and related schemes. Basically they have been pulling scams on a grand scale.