Not only that, but the patent system is 100% essential to pharma research. Pharma takes a crapload of time from patent to market because of the many layers or trial safety. There are drugs that just plain miss their deadline -- setbacks during the testing process for enough time and then the patent expires and a medication with useful applications get lost to history.

If you substantially screwed with that without a very careful and thorough knowledge of the consequences, drug discovery could grind to a halt.

Remember, this is an industry that's more than happy to just stop making drugs and let all the sufferers die if it's not profitable enough.