Having spent over 8 years doing drug R&D I can tell you that it is most certainly not the other way around. The specific kind of chemistry you need to develop a drug (a discipline known as medicinal chemistry) is exclusively practiced inside pharmaceutical companies. The academic research in the field is paltry. Without a compound, all e basic bio in the world is useless.
By your logic though, aren't all technology companies subsidized by the federal government? Don't companies like Intel and IBM use various discoveries from academia to make their products? Aren't all software companies essentially benefitting from government funded research into computer networking, language design, etc... Where do you draw the line?
"Having spent over 8 years doing drug R&D I can tell you that it is most certainly not the other way around. The specific kind of chemistry you need to develop a drug (a discipline known as medicinal chemistry) is exclusively practiced inside pharmaceutical companies."
You still have to know basic organic and inorganic chemistry, and math and statistics. All fields to which the pharmaceutical industry contributes absolutely nothing.
"Without a compound, all e basic bio in the world is useless."
But many of the compounds pharmaceutical companies use are based directly and indirectly on breakthroughs in basic research. And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the debt the pharmaceutical industry owes to the fundamental understanding of the human body (and that of animals) that came from basic research.
"By your logic though, aren't all technology companies subsidized by the federal government?"
Absolutely. There's a huge debt corporations the world over owe to the fruits of research funded almost exclusively by the government.
By your logic though, aren't all technology companies subsidized by the federal government? Don't companies like Intel and IBM use various discoveries from academia to make their products? Aren't all software companies essentially benefitting from government funded research into computer networking, language design, etc... Where do you draw the line?