for years, i just thought of pharmaceutical companies as another shitty type of corporation doing shitty things, knowing they were generallycomplicit in the prohibition / War on Drugs etc. maybe about 9 years ago, i stumbled upon a deeper investigation into the historical context of pharmaceutical companies as critical building blocks of empire itself.

in her book, Suzanna Reiss makes a potent case for the capital formations of/behind pharmaceutical corporations being uniquely powerful in the direction, strategy and prosecution of American empire, both at home and the later shoring up / hollowing out of resistance to it domestically. she did an interview in 2015 talking about the book in depth here, in audio format.

it's an interesting bit of research that took her down this path, because she started out not realizing how deep into history the connections would go (Opium Wars!) and how openly the public-private "partnerships" communicated as a matter of public record.

personally, i think you're right. among the very first moves in a revolution would to nationalize them, void all of their intellectual property, democratize their production lines among the workers and the communities where they are located, and imprison their executives.