The article is not talking about drug patents. It is talking about a current case which will decide whether or not to allow patents on medical treatment, even when the patents on the drugs have expired. The patent in question in the case regards a method for adjusting the dose of a drug. Medicine has done without these patents until now.

Ars Technica had an article about this the other day, which I thought was more compelling than the linked post:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/oblivious-su...