Even if they do profit some...it's still worth it. The world is losing trillions of dollars and everyone's life is worse off. Seems totally acceptable for people to make a profit off ending that cycle.
> "AstraZeneca, Britain’s second-largest drugmaker, has pledged to supply a total of more than 2 billion doses at no profit..." [0]
[0] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/international-busin...
"...at no profit..." can mean anything they want it to mean.
I think the point being made is that they will earn a profit, but hide it via accounting tricks (allocating a disproportionate share of drug discovery and admin costs to this project, for example), and have no downside in the form of liability if their vaccine turns out to be not so safe.
I find this concerning.