Reporter after decades of suffering, earlier this year yisrael was overjoyed to learn there was a cure. I felt like my prayers were answered. I am ready to be cured. Reporter the drug, sofosbuvir, is sold as sovaldi and harvoni and claims to cure up to 99 of hepatitis c patients, but theres a catch. The retail price for a 12week treatment is 84,000. The department of Veterans Affairs gets a 50 discount, but even with that, the va told yisrael they cant afford to give it to everyone who needs it, including him. Come back next year, and all the time im thinking about that, my condition is getting worse. Reporter dr. Raymond schinazi founded the company and led the Scientific Team that discovered the drug. Of Veterans Affairs since 1983. He says hes only a seven eighths Government Employee and what he does with his remaining time is up to him. So youre only spending one eighth of your time on your private company . Well, even less than that. Reporter even less . Yes. Im very efficient. Reporter dr. Schinazi made more than 400 million when he sold his company for 11 billion to pharmaceutical giant gilead in 2012. Do you see how that looks to an average veteran . Im sorry youre taking it personally. Reporter if youre surprised that a government scientist can make that kind of money, given federal laws surrounding conflicts of interest, so were we. Has anybody ever questioned the arrangement you have that allows you to become very wealthy while working seveneighths of your time with the government . Nobody has ever questioned that. I think ive done everything, ive disclosed everything to the reporter the va declined our request for an interview but approved the arrangement, and in a statement said federal employees are allowed to invest in private companies, provided all conflict of interest rules are followed. Gilead, the company that now owns and sets the price on sovaldi and harvoni, told us that the cost is in line with the previous standards of care. But in this 2013 trade journal, dr. Schinazi said it only costs about 1,400 to manufacture the full 12week treatment. Thats less than 2 of the retail price. Why is it so much more expensive than what it costs to make it . Thats a good question. I mean, i think the price will come down eventually. Reporter zion yisrael wonders if the price will come down in time to save him, in the two years his doctor says he has left. Its not right that the vets, were still alive and we come you know, we cant get cured, a medication produced by the country that were protecting . Reporter dr. Schinazi says the drug he helped create has helped save hundreds of thousands of lives around the world, but, scott, the va concedes that funding for u. S. Veterans is limited. So far theyve treated about 35,000 vets, just 15 of the veterans infected with hepatitis c. Chip reid with a revealing story in our washington newsroom. Chip, thanks. Patients who suffer from a rare infection called toxoplasmosis got some help today when express scripts offered to sell the treatment for 1 a pill. The drug is similar to daraprim, sold by turing pharmaceutical for 750 a pill. After an uproar, turings c. E. O. Martin shkreli promised to lower the price and then he appeared don dahler has more on this. Reporter when shkreli increased its price, they complained they were being unfairly vilified. There are a Dozen Companies just like ours that raise Prices Higher than ours and i dont see them getting the criticism i got. Reporter hes partially right. After valiant pharmaceuticals bought the rights to a heart medication, it raised the price from 179 a dose to almost 1,500. Activis increased the cost from 2,700 a bottle to over 1,800. You have your foot on the patients throat. Reporter industry analyst Richard Evans there is a moral obligation. You have to have the patients wellbeing at heart and you have to act accordingly. Reporter Imprimis Pharmaceuticals says theyre doing just that. Theyre using the basic ingredients of daraprim to make their own version of the drug. The infamous founder and ceo mark baum. We decided to take action to available to this vulnerable population. Reporter youre selling it for 1. Are you taking a loss on this . No. The chemicals that we use to make this formulation are quite inexpensive. We make a really nice profit on this, but we make what i feel is an ethical profit. Reporter after a global backlash, shkreli said hed lower the price of daraprim, last week he did, but only for hospitals, not individuals. Members of congress have called for an investigation into steep increases in drug prices, and, scott, imprimis says its looking at selling cheaper versions of other expensive medication, as well. Don dahler for us tonight. Don, thank you. Its cool in the midwest where records are falling and so is the snow. And we will remember a much loved member of our cbs news family. politely wait, wait, wait you cant put it in like that, you have to rinse it first. Whats that, alfredo . No,that can go in. What are you, nuts . Thats bakedon alfredo. Bakedon . Its never gonna work. Dish issues . Trust your dishwasher with cascade platinum. It powers. Through. Your toughest stuckon food. Better than finish. to the hostess see, told you it would work. turns to girl 2 you guys heard me say that, right . Cascade. Tonight winter storm warnings are up in much of the upper midwest. Snow is falling and cars are sliding. Heres david begnaud. Reporter in sioux falls, south dakota, driving has been an uphill battle. The second winter blast in less than a month created whiteout conditions. Molly liberko lives here. This is pretty heavy snow. I know i heard some warnings this is heart attack snow because its heavy. Reporter 81yearold eldora zea spent an hour today shoveling her landlords property. At my age, you get used to it. You just put a little extra apparel on. Reporter on monday, sioux falls got nearly nine inches of snow, breaking a daily record. That didnt stop donald shea from delivering more than 2,000 pieces of mail. You moved to south dakota from san diego ten years ago. Yes, i did. Reporter ever wish you were back . I love it out here. You put it through the test, rain, sleet or snow. Out here or south dakota. Reporter in minnesota, there have been over 500 weatherrelated accidents since yesterday. We rode with bryon foote as he plowed interstate 90. You might be driving on a really good road and catch some slush, and it will pull you into a ditch or another vehicle or something. Reporter back here in sioux falls, just south of the downtown area, nearly 26 inches of snow fell in the month of november. Scott, looking forward, northeastern minnesota is under a Winter Weather advisory for tomorrow morning. But it is beautiful. David begnaud reporting for us tonight. David, thank you very much. Now a correction in our report yesterday on cyber monday shopping, we misspoke when we said that nordstroms website had crashed. It did not crash. And we are sorry about the well be right back. Radliffe. Harry was the producer of some of our most memorable stories. Today at the age of 66, harry lost a sevenyear battle with colon cancer, and we lost an extraordinary talent and friend. Harry radliffe was a trailblazer. In the 1980s he became the first African American to head a cbs news bureau in london. As a 60 minutes producer for a quarter of a century, he traveled the world, producing nearly 100 stories. Harry was asked recently which one was his favorite. He picked the story that he did with the late correspondent bob simon about monasteries at mt. Athos on a remote peninsula in northern greece. It had the feel of a medieval city. Holiness seems to seep from the very stones. The monks called me after they saw our story and were happy that they had cooperated their story. They started referring to me as beloved. Beloved. Not bad. That doesnt normally happen on 60 minutes, let me tell you. But beloved he was, by all of us. 60 minutes executive producer jeff fager said it best today. Decent and a wonderful friend. Approaching medicare eligibility . Dont put off checking out your Medicare Options until 65. Now is a good time to get the ball rolling. Medicare only covers about eighty percent of part b medical costs. The rest is up to you. Thats where aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plans insured by Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company come in. Like all standardized Medicare Supplement insurance plans, they could help save you in outofpocket medical costs. Taking informed steps really makes a difference later. Thats what it means to go long. Call now and request this free decision guide and explore the range of aarp Medicare Supplement plans. All plans like these let you that accepts medicare patients. These are the only Medicare Supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. Call now and request your free decision guide. And start gathering the information you need today, to celebrate the birth of his daughter, Mark Zuckerberg announced hes pledging 99 of his facebook stock, about 45 billion, to philanthropy paying it forward. That was also the goal of a young man of more modest means, and carter evans has his story. Reporter with two small children, stayathome mother Jamie Lynne Knighten has her hands full. It was a recent trip to the Grocery Store that nearly pushed her to the breaking point, when the only credit card she had with her was declined. Youre in line, wyatts going nuts, what are you going to do . Trying to figure out if i could go home and get my other card. Reporter 28yearold Matthew Jackson was behind her and offered to pay for her 200 grocery bill. He refused to take no for an answer but he had one condition just do it for somebody else. Reporter a few days later knighten, tracked down the Good Samaritan to the gym he worked at. She called to thank him and manager angela lavender picked up the phone. When she said, i just wanted the manager to know what kind of a beautiful person they get to work with, my heart broke. She started to cry and she said, you know, im sorry to have to tell you this, but matthew passed away. Reporter matthew was killed in a car accident. And i put the dates together and it was the day after i had met him. I wanted to honor this man. I wanted people to know what he did for me. Reporter so knighten set up Facebook Page in matthews honor. Followers and hundreds of stories inspired by matthew. You cant put a price on that. You cant put a price on giving people hope again. Reporter carter evans, cbs news, carlsbad, california. And thats the overnight news for this wednesday. For some of you, the news continues. For others, check back with us a little later for the morning news and cbs this morning. From the Broadcast Center in new this is the cbs overnight news. Welcome to the overnight news. Im anna warner. The next Republican Debate is just two weeks away, and gop front runner donald trump is predicting it will be a ratings bonanza. Trump told supporters that so many people will be tuning in to see him, that he might charge cnn 5 million just to appear on stage. Whether or not thats a joke, iowas first in the nation caucuses are less than two months away, and polls in the state show senator ted cruz is now nearly even with trump. Thats got cruz going on the offensive. Major garrett reports. All of these dumbass politicians said oh, no, oh, no. Thats what they are. Reporter trump stayed on the offensive monday night, for Veterans Charities or he would bug out of the networks december 15th debate. Should i do it . I dont know if i want to take the chance. Reporter but trump pulled punches when he talked about senator ted cruz, now nearly tied with trump in iowa. Hes been so supportive, but to hit me, right . Its going to be a sad day, but we will hit back. Reporter that day is already here. I dont believe donald trump is going to be our nominee. I dont believe hes going to be our president. Reporter cruz invited controversy of his own to last weeks shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic. Here is the simple and undeniable fact. The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are democrats. The media doesnt report that. Reporter earlier in new york, trump met with black pastors to discuss comments hes made in the past. I think they want to see victory. Reporter trumps message appealed to some. I see strength, leadership. Reporter but others were its very unfortunate the way hes talked to not just the Africanamerican Community but things hes said about mexicans and muslims. Reporter ted cruz has risen more than ten points in two weeks. Cruz said yesterday conservatives are coalescing around his campaign and he says if that wont scontinues, its game over. Hillary clinton says she has a plan to destroy the islamic state. Forces, air strikes and a nofly zone over parts of syria. But she told charlie rose her plans do not include combat troops. I agree with the president s point that were not putting american combat troops back into syria or iraq. Were not going to do that. Under no circumstances would you not do that . Well, at this point i cannot conceive of any circumstances where i would agree to do that. We dont know yet how many how many trainers and surveillance and enablers might be needed. But in terms of thousands of combat troops like some on the republican side are recommending, i think that should be a nonstarter and it should be a nonstarter both because i dont think its a smartest way to go after isis. I think it gives isis a new recruitment tool if we get back in the fight. Tell me how serious the threat of isis is and what level do we decide well do anything we have to do to stop them . Well, i think we have to haves our objective their defeat. I think you have to fight them in the air, fight them on the ground, and fight them in cyberspace. Now youre facing an even more barbaric enemy which has more money and now controls territory. We need to get over the false choice between either going after assad or going after isis. Help us understand that, because everybody is talking about that. How do you do both . I think you do both by making it clear and bringing the you know, the russians have paid a big price because of the bomb in their jet coming from sharm el sheikh. So theyve lost people to isis, right . I think you say, look, we need your if not your active help, your acquiescence in what were going to do going after isis. So that means youre going to have to pull back while we go after their leadership and their economic infrastructure. But if you want to be part of that, we welcome you and you have a dog in hunt now because youre worried about whats happening in the caucuses. Youre worried about isis spreading its ideology. Right now were not going to see a military defeat of assad. Thats not going to happen. It might have been possible a few years ago. Its not going to happen now. Theres a nofly zone, which you advocate. And the russians invade that nofly zone, would president clinton say, shoot it down if you give it warning . That would not happen. Zone where the russians are clearly kept informed. I want them at the table. They dont have to participate in it, but i want them to understand that there has to be safe areas on the ground. Is there some lesson we need to learn and it may be applicable to syria, dont get rid of a strongman until you have somebody that can come in there. Because you dont want chaos. Because what you have in libya now is an increasing force of isis. There are armed groups that are fighting for power within libya that are not in any way identified with or allied with isis. They need to form even a loose confederation to try to push isis literally into the sea before they get a stronghold. The political uproar continues over president obamas plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian Refugees. The governors of 31 states say they wont allow it. Now the white house is offering report on every refugee settled this year. Thats not good enough for the governor of texas, who is threatening legal action against organizations helping the immigrants. Manuel bojorquez reports from austin. Reporter almost 200 Syrian Refugees resettled in texas last fiscal year, many with the help of organizations like the International Rescue committee, or the irc, a nonprofit. That group is now under the scrutiny of Texas Governor greg abbott. We will be working to ensure that Syrian Refugees are not going to be allowed into the state of texas and given refuge in the state of texas. Reporter 31 governors, all but one republican, say they oppose accepting Syrian Refugees, fearing terrorists may sneak in with them and carry out attacks similar to those in paris two weeks ago. Texas is threatening legal irc saying failure to cooperate violates federal law and your contract with the state. This woman runs another immigrant Services Organization that works in texas with Syrian Refugees. What about those security concerns, though . What would you tell people who say we should take a pause . Prove to me theres been one active terrorism by a refugee during the past year since 2001. There have been none. Reporter but now many resettlement organizations find themselves having to choose between following state orders and federal law. The Obama Administration sent a letter to resettlement organizations last week, reminding them that federal law requires states to provide assistance and services to refugees, without regard to race, gender, religion, nationality. The organizations know very well that they cannot exclude just Syrian Refugees, and if liability on that basis. Hey peter. unenthusiastic oh. Ha ha ha joanne . Is that you . Its me. Y