[klabb3]

> Off-topic, but your comment reminded me of evergreening of medical drug patents

Wow thanks for the rabbit hole. Clicked around and found “me-too drugs”[1]:

> a medication that is similar to a pre-existing drug, usually by making minor modifications to the prototype […] used to treat conditions for which drugs already exist

Yep. Same playbook for sure.

> The changed version of the drug is simultaneously different enough from the unchanged version that the pharmaceutical company can successfully apply for a new patent from the USPTO and similar enough that anyone who wants to make a biosimilar of the unchanged version can still be sued for patent infringement.

Beyond! This is like Soviet levels of kafkaesque rules. All in the free market country of USA.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me-too_drug