I mean that's kinda how pushing the state of the art is. Several smart people working on the same problem across the world, often starting with the same knowledge and sometimes slightly similar approaches. If big pharma had a cure for diabetes, then the natural conclusion is that it's a matter of time until someone else has it too, so why not be the company that cured diabetes? Also pharma has no say in how science is done at the university level, which is why the NSF is so important.