[danieltillett]

How can you say this is not true then give all example that require a patent? Yes you can mine drugs that are out of patent and find new uses for it that can be patented. Do you know of one new drug that has come to market in recent years without patent protection?

[rgejman]

The difference between (a) an existing, off-patent molecule and a (b) patentable variant of that molecule is somewhat trivial compared to all of the other costs of bringing a drug to market.

But to address your specific question, generics are drugs that come onto the market all of the time without patent protection.