They can also patent new uses of that drug.

So here's an example, and I'm just gonna make one up.

I have drug X that was first approved for diabetes.

Let's say the patents expired the year 2000, and then later on, I get a patent for that same drug to treat cancer, but that patent doesn't expire until, let's say, 2020.

And if the Supreme Court rules in Amarin's favor, Shawn too worries that brand companies will get more creative about blocking skinny label competition by filing more patents on how the drug is used, patents that are so similar to each other that it's almost impossible to write a label for just one of them.

In the Amarin v. Hikma case, the, the actual indication is really bad heart disease, and then slightly bad heart disease, and then I got patents on preventing heart disease.

You know, that's the kind of games that I think is, are gonna kinda happen in the future.