[sanp]

They make money because patents prevent others from producing that “something”. The justification for patents is that the inventor gets to milk their invention in return for sharing how they did it. This is based on the an assumption that society as a whole benefits from this arrangement. So, if society as a whole is not benefiting from patents because pharma companies are charging obscene amounts then it is time to get rid of patents for medicines (or regulate how much pharma companies get to charge).