So pharmaceutical companies spend far less on marketing outside the US, partly because every other country besides New Zealand makes those incessant drug ads illegal, and partly because government negotiate prices and keep profit margins down. If the argument is that R&D costs are what make drugs expensive, then we could easily eliminate an even greater expense by just copying what other developed nations do.

Don’t you think drug companies would be doing that (not advertise) if it would increase their profit?

Of course advertising increases their profit. It does that by increasing their revenue even more than the cost of the advertising.

For the rest of us, that giant increase in revenue is an increase in our healthcare costs.

Ah so sounds like your logic is: ban advertising -> less costs -> less revenue & lower patient costs -> same profit.

I think I can spot a flaw in that logic.

That last step contradicts my previous comment.