“They do not have a dime into the research that led to the discovery or refinement of this product but they would still financially rape the public with the markup if they could buy the patents.”
Most likely your friend has a good idea of the future economic worth of his work and can make a deal with big pharma and rape THEM accordingly. It may be to his advantage to do so because he may not have the necessary marketing, manufacturing, or legal know-how. Or maybe he does, in which case he can tell them to take a flying leap.
The rhetoric that you hear from Democrats who favor price considers only producion costs and not R&D. The fact remains that imposing price controls on drugs ala Canada and Europe would kill R&D.
This research Doc does have the ability to take this product to market. He has made the decision to see this through to the end. By keeping control of the product and process he will be a very wealthy man and the public will be paying much less.
He is smart enough to know that the world will not measure his success by the size of his bank account. I believe that his line of products will be saving lives in Iraq within a few weeks.