That's pretty much how a lot of medical R&D happens. A lot of startup don't even bother trying to go market and big companies are cutting down on R&D. One consequence of this is that the big players get more and more entrenched and a lot of regulation is customized to their needs.
In tech it's also pretty sad that small startups with a good product still don't feel that they can make it on their own but instead prefer to be bought up by a bigger player who then shuts down their product.
A good team that ships product is still extremely valuable, even if it had no product-market fit. If you can aquihire them and put them to work on new ideas, it's still much less risk vs. having to bootstrap a team from scratch.
In tech it's also pretty sad that small startups with a good product still don't feel that they can make it on their own but instead prefer to be bought up by a bigger player who then shuts down their product.