I’m no socialist, but pharma should be regulated as a public utility.

The argument is without substantial potential private profit, there would be no investment in developing product.

But this isn’t the “math” of how medicines are created and brought to market. Massive amounts of public monies subsidize research and development — university, state and federal, even so-called “non profits” grants funnel indirectly to pharma; we take the risk, they keep the reward.