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Hugely profitable is perhaps misleading. It’s hugely profitable in the sense that the aggregate profits are high, simply due to both the sheer number of products sold and their high prices. But in terms of profit to expense ratios the Pharma industry is actually at the low end of the spectrum. Most other industries, including tech, are far more profitable in this regard.

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I wouldn't call it the low end of the spectrum [1]:

> Pharmaceutical companies had significantly higher annual profit margins than S&P 500 companies for the 3 primary outcome measures of gross profit, EBITDA, and net income (P < .001) (Table 1).

> For pharmaceutical companies, the median gross profit margin was 76.5% (95% CI, 70.3%-82.7%), the median EBITDA margin was 29.4% (95% CI, 26.3%-32.5%), and the median net income margin was 13.8% (95% CI, 10.2%-17.4%). For S&P 500 companies, the median gross profit margin was 37.4% (95% CI, 35.2%-39.6%), the median EBITDA margin was 19% (95% CI, 17.8%-20.3%), and the median net income margin was 7.7% (95% CI, 7.2%-8.2%) (Table 2).

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7054843/

Now show me the Sharpe ratio. High risk, high reward

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