By Brian Trinque and Giulio DeConti ( January 16, 2018, 12:16 PM EST) -- Pharmaceutical patent practitioners implement intellectual property strategies for medicines well beyond the granting of a basic composition-of-matter patent. Novel formulations, combination therapies, dosing strategies and patient stratifications are just a few examples of the discoveries arising from clinical development that can inspire new patent applications, which will protect these inventions, and, importantly, extend patent protection for a product. Practitioners must often strike a balance between the trifecta of the examples, which illustrate the discovery and serve as a building block for the filing; the specification, which provides an invention narrative that advocates for successful patenting; and, finally, claim breadth, which one hopes to maximize, but is grounded by the realities of novelty, obviousness, written description, and enablement....