I’m really curious where this concept that the government is spending tons of money on drug R&D at publicly funded universities is coming from.

It comes from reality

Onasemnogene abeparvovec, developed by the US biotechnology startup AveXis, which was acquired by Novartis in 2018, is based on research conducted at the Institut de Myologie in France.

The Institut de Myologie in France is a nonprofit org that finds itself mostly from a yearly telethon and government funding… This would be you

Novartis Gene Therapies, until 2020 known as AveXis, is a biotechnology company that develops treatments for rare neurological genetic disorders. It was founded in Dallas, Texas, United States in 2012 by John Carbona after reorganizing a company called BioLife Cell Bank founded by David Genecov and John Harkey. Work done at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in the laboratory of Brian Kaspar was licensed to AveXis in October 2013. Unusual for the time, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, in addition to upfront and milestone payments, also took an equity position in AveXis.

The Nationwide Children’s Hospital is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care teaching hospital located in the Southern Orchards neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. The hospital has 673 pediatric beds and is affiliated with the Ohio State University College of Medicine

See? At least in part, the money for the start up that D the drug, based on the R France publicly provides, came from the Ohio State University which also receives public funding

As always with Capitalism… Socialise the costs, privatize the profits