But even if it were a life-saving drug, would it exist at that point in time (rather than a few decades later) if billions of dollars hadn't been spent to bring

But even if it were a life-saving drug, would it exist at that point in time (rather than a few decades later) if billions of dollars hadn't been spent to bring it to market (instead of investing the money in any one of a number of other things, including non-pharmaceutical healthcare research), and would that money have been invested in the first place if there hadn't been an expectation of a return on investment that took into account the risk of failure?