"world pharmaceutical companies started it all"
all companies together or just a specific one?
Not even the dumbest of all villains would think about starting to sell its vaccine after a couple of years when the virus has mutated. The money is always made at the beginning.
What if the virus already got extinct? What if your vaccine is useless? What if you killed everyone capable of buying your vaccine? A mutation can never be predicted.
In 1 or 2 years the market will be flooded with vaccines and companies will barely make any profit from it.
If you are about to release a virus to the world to start a pandemic let me know, I will tell you some ways to make money waaaay easier than selling vaccines
we can work together