[BigJono]

What do you mean by "gets access"?

If the R&D cost (including amortised failures and whatever) for some hypothetical drug is $1B and the manufacturing cost is $100M for 100M doses. The drug should cost about $11 + a reasonable markup in a fully private system.

If the R&D costs are fully funded by taxpayers, it should cost $1 + a reasonable markup.

The public doesn't "get" anything if it still costs $11 (+markup) and a company is allowed to take a 1000% profit margin because they're only risking the $100M for the manufacturing.

[tptacek]

The R&D costs are absolutely not fully funded by taxpayers.

[BigJono]

That's why I used two hypotheticals at each extreme that can be extrapolated to any point in-between...