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Not quite.

Although naturally occurring products such as plants cannot be patented, formulations can be. For example, when pharmaceutical companies first thought of 'combining' 2 or more antihypertensive medications such as monopril PLUS hydrochlorothiazide into ONE, single tablet, they were able to patent these technically old drugs as 'new formulations'.

Another example was when the company that formulated Spiriva (tiotropium) came up with the Respimat device, despite already having the older, 'Handihaler' device. The company in this case was not able to patent the 'drug' per se, but was able to patent the overall medication due to its new formulation.

The relevance of all this relative to cannabis extracts is that there are ways for pharmaceutical companies to patent their products (despite not being able to patent the drugs/extract, themselves). A possible solution for medicinal cannabis companies to do this is by collaborating with medicinal chemists/drug-development/design pharmacists). These guys may come up with formulation ideas such as employing the use of cucurbiturils to allow formulations such as CannEpil 'target' endocannabinoid receptors, for example.

And finally, even if patenting was not possible, I have previously mentioned that what is relevant for clincians like myself is Evidence Based Medicine (EBM). We will always opt for whichever product has greater evidence backing its use and this often (but not always) means choosing older drugs on the market. Considering CannEpil is the second CBD formulation on the Australian market for human use, it ticks that box. Rest assured.

Anyway,
TL;DR
There are ways we're able to patent medicinal cannabis products but whether we do or don't does NOT matter.

InX_ (Consultant, Senior and Specialist Critical Care Pharmacist)