You really aren't making the point you think you are. We are talking about a drug discovered (Poland) more than 100 years ago, isolated (Japan) more than 100 years ago, synthesized (England, Germany) more than 100 years ago. Then wrapped in a device basically developed by the US army in the 1970s. So how does letting an mostly uninvolved private US company set prices arbitrarily lead to more of this sort of development? For completeness, I'll note Merck did real work in improving the delivery mechanism (after a couple of recalls), but the heavy lifting was as above. Merck is of course German, not US, but it went through one or two US companies before landing there, if I recall correctly, and then Mylan acquired marketing rights in the US. Without new development, Mylan ran the price up about 6x over the 2009-2016 years (to a margin of about 95%) , which is what caused all the pricing fuss.
More generally, while I know what you are getting at you have to be careful with this sort of statement "this is the only way to do the drug development" is a pharma industry talking point but it is largely bullshit (although not entirely, the model run in the US does make it quite expensive and that can't be fully supported the way it is on, say, generics pricing).
It is true that the US is more productive in this space per capita than most places (but not as much as many think) , but it is really difficult to determine if this is primarily due to fundamental capacity, or due to financial incentives...
More generally, while I know what you are getting at you have to be careful with this sort of statement "this is the only way to do the drug development" is a pharma industry talking point but it is largely bullshit (although not entirely, the model run in the US does make it quite expensive and that can't be fully supported the way it is on, say, generics pricing).
It is true that the US is more productive in this space per capita than most places (but not as much as many think) , but it is really difficult to determine if this is primarily due to fundamental capacity, or due to financial incentives...