this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
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I think many people dramatically overestimate how profitable drug companies are. The average net profit for a brand-name drug manufacturer is actually less than 30% (source). They're about as profitable as tech companies.
That's still quite profitable, but I suspect that if you were to limit them to 30% net profits on their most successful blockbuster drugs, their overall net profits (which have to compensate for the R&D that goes into failed drugs) might not even be positive.
Except the majority of the cutting edge R&D is done and/or funded via the public sector.
Their R&D budget priorities are more focused on things like reformulating existing drugs to extend the patents and prevent opening the market to generic manufacturers.
So yes, cheating patent laws and heavily spending on marketing and lobbying campaigns does eat into their profit margins a little bit.
But I'm not sure how that justifies their unparalleled track record of pathologically sadistic business practices, such as the one highlighted in this article.
Do you have a graph or chart for that?