You seem to be interested in arguing the statement "Pharmaceutical companies in the US spend too much on R&D". But that's not equivalent to the statement "The

You seem to be interested in arguing the statement "Pharmaceutical companies in the US spend too much on R&D". But that's not equivalent to the statement "The US provides the funding for the majority of R&D that the rest of the world benefits from". If you think that pharmaceutical companies should spend less of their money on R&D, or more on it, that's not really relevant. Whatever research pharmaceutical companies are doing, that's being disproportionately funded by the US market. That's a plainly evident statement; it's right there in their financial sheets. > You could just as well say the US funds the majority of drug advertising for the entire world No, because research is a wholly non-excusable good in the global market. Advertising is not. > they spend more on ads than R&D Again, not really the point.