This is misleading. The first insulin patent was filed in 1912, and has long since entered the public domain. The drug has been vastly improved over the years, but only the newest version is still patent-protected. The reason why there are no generics in the US seems to be that unlike most drugs, where virtually the entire cost lies in R&amp;D, all the known variants of insulins are very costly to produce. This is what this project aims at, gearing to develop a genetically modified E. coli strain, which would bring down the cost of production to that of citric acid.