As far as a company producing products is concerned, research for the future is even more important than research for the “now.” This is true for almost any company that isn’t monopolizing a particular market (in which case, research isn’t essential at all, which is one of the reasons why monopolies are undesirable).

However, in a world where companies focus on little more than the next quarter’s financial report, many public companies spend significantly more on current research to maintain an edge in the market in the short-term. This may be beneficial temporarily, but it can cost companies in the long run, when their products become ineffective compared to new alternatives. In the biomedical industry, incentives are high to create new, better products that will take over the market share currently possessed by current products.

Academia, not generally bound to the whims of investors, is generally more likely to conduct long-term research, which tends to be riskier, and not aimed toward a well-defined end product.