I think them and Moderna turned the money down because they'd have to share the patent with the government. Trump offered them money, they didn't take it.
Putting reasonable price caps on critical medications would work nicely as well. I am not sure putting full control of all medications in the hands of politicians would work out too well either.
They just want to line their pockets. At lot of this stuff they don't even pay the research on, or did so long ago (like insulin) that they recouped the cost many times over.
Honestly this is a really good thing. Imagine how much money this will bring into the economy. You can choose to die from covid, or take out a predatory healthcare loan for this drug. Most people will choose to go into massive debt just to stay alive, and the economy could really use that cash injection right now to prevent a recession from happening. Just think of how much shareholder value locking a critically lifesaving drug behind such a high price tag will create.