That patent gamesmanship is part of a strategy of "lifecycle management" where pharma tries to extend monopoly pricing beyond main patent expiry. It used to be

That patent gamesmanship is part of a strategy of "lifecycle management" where pharma tries to extend monopoly pricing beyond main patent expiry. It used to be much more effective. basically companies could do something like patent for ex a pill you take twice a day vs 3 times a day. Other companies can make generic versions of the 3x a day pill Unless you provide a real clinical benefit, most payers will make docs write an rx for the 3x a day generic vs new 2x a day patent. So these lifecycle extension games certainly happen but it's not really that effective