[skosuri]

Very little drug development happens in academia. You are missing all the time, money spent in public and private markets in the biotech ecosystem that Pharma largely is the back end buyer for through off-balance sheet acquisitions/deals. VCs collectively spend tens a billions a year on biotech (~40B this year), and much more in public markets (IPOs and secondary public finances).

In the example you bring up. Moderna raised and spent billions over a decade since it was founded on the 'academic invention', and didn't have a product until their vaccine. The same is true for BioNTech. There was a large chance these companies could have folded, and before the pandemic, most were deeply skeptical.