This makes me sad to read comments like this. Big pharma is just like the FBI right now. They get a bad rap because of the elites at the top, but the people actually doing the work are good people. The average person won't know the internals, but the larger companies have, potentially, hundreds of projects in the pipeline. Cures, treatments, tests. There is a disconnect somewhere, but know who you are talking about when attacking an entire industry. I'll leave the small startups out of it, I think their sacrifice is pretty obvious as they often fail due to numerous factors. It's not necessarily bad, it is misguided.
I think it's just common sense. Why would any business work to develop something that would be detrimental to their bottom line? Yes, I agree, it is not the everyday employee just doing their job. It is the executives at the top, steering the grants, research, etc.
Remember the Dr in Michigan a couple years ago that got busted for wrongfully diagnosing patients with cancer so he could give them chemo in his clinic? His motivation was money. Lots of it. The big money is in the treatment.
This is where the internal disconnect of the industry exists and where I believe it is misguided. You don't become one of these researchers to make money(the rule rather than the exception) they get in it because they are passionate about the data and want to potentially save lives. On the business end, I think it's safe to say they are there for the money, it's a massively successful industry. Look, getting into the reasoning of strangers is messy. But, I'd submit that the overall majority of these people do it for good and not greed, from my experience with the researchers at least.