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Some research money is basic; it goes into uncovering the basic questions of how things work, without any immediate apparent application to a particular problem. Some research money is more applied; it is aimed at exploring a particular problem. Of course, nothing is actually as cut and dried as this. But in this case, as in many others, the people who are working more towards the applied end still are working with incomplete knowledge of the basic end. Usually, someone uncovers something at the basic end that gains the attention of someone who's more oriented towards application.

Your question taken to an extreme (that you didn't take it to, I hasten to add) is like those who figure that AIDS is a government plot, because if it wasn't all the money that's been spent on it by now would have come up with a cure. These things take their own time. I spent a significant part of my life in biochemistry research labs, and I can tell you that the people there are very smart, not all that well paid, and very dedicated to what they're doing.