Big Pharma spends billions more on executives and stockholders than on R&D

Re:Big Pharma spends billions more on executives and stockho... by bart_spoon on Saturday February 17, 2024 @03:03PM (#39412962)

Pfizer is one of the largest drug makers in the world, and an annual net income of $10B puts them well behind many tech companies (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, Google, TCMC), carmakers (Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz), retailers (Walmart and Home Depot), fashion brands (Dior), telco companies (Verizon), banks (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, UBS), financial services companies (Visa), insurers (United Health), shipping companies (Maersk), and basically every gas and oil company on the planet. I think you would be hard pressed to identify a single one of these companies who hasn’t benefited from tax payer funded government research and initiatives.

So what exactly makes it so perniciously awful for pharmaceutical companies to do so?

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Re:Big Pharma spends billions more on executives and stockho... by tfourb on Saturday February 17, 2024 @03:16PM (#39413100)

Because my life doesn't depend on if I can buy the next iPhone, but it very well might depend on if I can afford a certain drug.

Apart from that I personally think that excessive profit is reprehensible for any type of business, as someone, somewhere is the sucker on the other end of that equation. Tremendous profits usually come with someone being exploited somewhere along the value chain. For many of the businesses that you have listed this is painfully obvious for anyone who is willing to think about this for even a minute.

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