CA
“however everyone agrees the price cannot be less than the cost of the product”
This isnt remotely true. You can develop something with little demand say a mud-flavored lollipop. You spend a lot of money developing the exact taste of mud. Say it cost you $5 a pop to develop.
Trust me with little demand you arent selling it for more than $5.
You might be able to create some demand and sell it as a novelty item or a trick lollipop or something but you will have to sell it at less than cost. There is absolutely no doubt if you want to sell it your price will have to be less than cost (obviously you wont be profitable, but its better than not selling them at all)
As I said in the last comment. The main determinants of price (i.e what the consumer is willing to pay) are supply and demand.