Surprise, surprise but a huge chunk (maybe even the majority of?) of drug research is conducted by academic institutions using government funded grants. Then the drug companies come swoop up the research, refine it, mass produce, and market. They shouldn't be able to get such a free ride from all this government funded research imo. The taxpayers already funded the research so why are they getting the short end of the stick?

Research is the least labour- and time-intensive part of the system.

Trials are punishingly expensive.

Edit: protocol development. Drug interactions. Poisonings, Doctor education -- er, marketing. Incorporation into manuals. There's a lot that happens after the research talent has strutted its stuff.

Edit edit: oh, yeah developing manufacturing and logistics as well. The 'D' part of "R & D" is usually over 95% of the total for a reason.

The challenge is that Pharma companies still spend huge sums on marketing, both to patients and to doctors. While I could probably be convinced that there's some role for spend on physician education about new drugs or spreading awareness, it should be a small fraction of the spend on R&D and manufacturing.

https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2019/7/...

So the cheap part is government funded but the expensive and risky part is private and you take that as them getting a "free ride".