I thought your readers might be interested in the following, from
Scientific American, September 1896:

"The United States Patent Office is ready to grant patents for medicines,
although it is an open question in professional ethics whether a physician
should patent a remedy. Synthetic medicines, prepared by chemical
processes, often coal tar products, are now invading the field of Nature's
simples, and it is possible that there may yet be a number of patentable
medical compounds invented, to replace quinine and other vegetable
alkaloids and extracts."

It is interesting to note that 100 years later we have created a medical
system that uses patent medicines almost exclusively. We are taught to
take our medicine in pills instead of vegetable extracts. The law even
prohibits the use of one vegetable alkaloid that was commonly used, namely
cannabis.

Sincerely,
Arthur Livermore