[pfdietz]

If the university owned the IP, then its value should have been reflected in what was bid for it.

If the knowledge was not restricted by IP law, then any drug company could use it, and compete for new drugs based on it. As such, it would not provide any of them with a competitive advantage, and so would not be reflected in what they could charge.

What universities typically produce is not a chemical that can serve as an actual drug, but is only a starting point for a long and expensive process of producing such a chemical. And then, it's often found that the target of the class of potential drugs isn't actually a good one. One can't determine that until drug candidates are available to test on real patients.

[Jensson]

> What universities typically produce is not a chemical that can serve as an actual drug, but is only a starting point for a long and expensive process of producing such a chemical

Remember you need to include all the failed attempts at finding useful things at university labs to see how much governments spend on research (just like you did failed pharma attempts), and if you add that up you see governments actually contribute a massive part of the cost to bring medicines to market.

What they produce is necessary to even begin the work pharma does, currently it is basically a gift from the people to the pharma industry.