Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're basing your argument on cherrypicking one single pharmaceutical company that is doing exceptionally well recently because it had the second best selling drug of 2018, Harvoni, a drug to treat Hep C. What about when you take all the pharma companies and average how well they do over several years? The average net profit margin for the industry is 14.05% according to a January 2018 study by New York University’s…
14.05% Is FUCKING GREAT considering they make their money over the misery of people. It's actually a disgrace that the profit margin is anything over 2%.
Profiting off someone's misery would be when you cause the problem and provide the solution. If you merely recognize an existing problem and provide a solution where there previously was none or where the previous solution was inadequate/inferior.
Attitudes like yours makes me not want to continue using my talent to create on solutions to problems that qualitatively and quantitatively improve people's lives. If people are going to look at it as profiting off misery and deny me the opportunity to increase my wealth, I and others will just take our talents elsewhere. There is no lack of other industries and problems where those capable of contributing solutions can make money and not be subject to your shitty attitude towards how they make a living.
Lastly, I say all this as someone who takes an orphan drug myself that would not exist at all if the US didn't have a legal framework that gives pharmaceutical companies the incentive to bring drugs to market. The drug I take is available in only one other country and only because a US pharmaceutical company brought it to market.