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secrets don’t confer exclusivity. They don’t block
competitors from developing functionally similar
processes. They don’t offer a 20-year monopoly. They offer
opacity, not protection.

This creates an awkward situation for plant-based
therapeutic developers:
● Too complex to easily patent in a traditional sense.

● Too sensitive to variation to claim broad
equivalence.
● Too decentralized to enforce monopolies at scale.

It also creates an uncomfortable reality for the
pharmaceutical industry:

You can’t own a system you don’t fully control.
In the edible biologics world, the drug is not just a
molecule. It’s a plant. A process. A protocol. A phenotype.
And that makes it much harder to lock down—and much
easier to share.
Which, from the perspective of public health, is a feature.
But from the perspective of Big Pharma, it’s a flaw.

2. Unconventional Formulations Undermine Traditional
Patents

In traditional biologics, formulation is a science unto itself.
After the protein is purified, an entire secondary industry
steps in: chemists and engineers optimize buffer systems to
maintain stability, add surfactants or sugars to prevent
aggregation, include preservatives to extend shelf life, and
develop proprietary delivery vehicles—liposomes,
microspheres, or controlled-release injections. These
elements are often patented separately and can be critical

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