Yes- agree with you. Most discussions around healthcare/pharma/hospitals have a moral element(look they are price gouging us). There are possibly some cases that fit the description but I am not sure if it applies across the industry.
If in fact, pharma companies where making super normal profits- it would show up in their financial statements. Operating profits for any given year may not be appropriate because a lot of the R&D costs are in the balance sheet.
A more appropriate (but still not perfect) metric would be Return on Assets (Profits/Assets) i.e. how much return are you getting on the capital you put in. Here are some metrics for some pharma companies. None of them are making super normal profits.