Others would say that it is immoral for such advances to be monopolized by a single company, keeping everyone except that company from benefiting from the research.
In my experience, companies do only research that has a clear potential for profit, preferably in the short-term. Government funded research tends to be more open and ask the basic "how" questions that lead to the basic mechanistic understanding that allow companies to develop the profitable products. I am a basic scientist; the things I do in the lab typically percolate to the commercial world a decade or so after they become commonplace in the lab.
My experience is different. I’ve worked for five or six Fortune 100 companies and they all did basic research to one degree or another some of it far removed from their basic line of work.