From what I read and heard there are two major reasons that drugs are expensive, and it’s NOT because the pharmaceutical companies are “greedy”.
One reason is the extensive and expensive process and clinical trials required to get FDA approval and remember out of several drug trials, one may be approved. Drugs in Europe are just as safe, but they don’t have such excessive requirements, before marketing them. I recall reading that there are some medications that have been available in Europe for many years, found to be effective, no problems, yet they cannot be approved in the US, without some extensive clinical trials, that the manufacturers can’t afford.
I think the other reason is that after a relatively short time — 12 years (?) some other company can just get the forumula and start selling generics, without having invested a dime in the development, so the original company that invested a great deal of money in the development, has to make back their investment and make some profit in a much shorter time.
You had good points. One correction: they have only 7 years to recover billions of dollars and make some profit, too.