Yes, a patent can be extended with a different use case. Drug repurposing or repositioning is mostly done exactly because of this financial benefit. Unfortunate

Yes, a patent can be extended with a different use case. Drug repurposing or repositioning is mostly done exactly because of this financial benefit. Unfortunately that does not apply to currently generic drugs, so pharmaceutical companies don't put the resources into repurposing off-patent drugs that could be helpful. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_repositioning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_repositioning