Savings doesn't matter if you're dead, but the other side can't be ignored either. If those billions permits more competition and leads to new drugs, that too can save lives.

We need to do what we think is most likely to lead to the best outcome. There's a point beyond which that's no longer "more research", at which point researching more isn't taking it seriously. I have no particularly strong feelings about just where we are in that space - I'm busy saving the world along other lines.