You are making a good point, tricky. Maybe you addressed me because I keep making research related posts. I've been thinking about it in the past but I feel that my patent related knowledge is not strong enough to qualify me to give a decent answer here. So I'll just give you my superficial two cents.
If any of the expiring patents are still relevant to Cellmid's plans and pipelines, I assume a patent extension is an option if applicable.
Here is an article about this topic that might be worth a read.
http://www.biopharminternational.com/strategies-extending-life-patents
Some of the options mentioned there are to apply for new uses or combinations.
Regardless, I would assume that even without the patent that wouldn't necessarily mean the end of a drug programme. An expiring patent doesn't mean that suddenly all the competition will jump on it. Cellmid not only owns some patents but they also have a wealth of knowledge. Other companies would have to build that knowledge first if they decided to go the midkine path (unless they've been working on it for years). Cellmid has two of the leading scientists in the midkine space who are still involved in many midkine related research publications (Muramatsu and Kadomatsu, see
http://www.cellmid.com.au/content_common/pg-scientists.seo).
And let's not forget that Cellmid is not the only midkine related patent holder. Other companies and organisations may have patents that stop Cellmid from using certain discoveries. Of course, it would be an advantage to maintain that exclusivity lid. But I honestly don't know how patent expiry would affect Cellmid, and whether they have options and ways to extend, or even the need to (as per linked article) extend any of the patents. I would have to take some more time to go through all of the patents listed, but the key patents page seems incomplete as it doesn't list some of the "key patents" as per previous announcements.
I would suggest that this is addressed with the board as a question as it certainly interests most shareholders. As it might interest the competition as well, the answer might not be too enlightening but it's worth a try.
I don't know if this very general answer helped, but as you asked me I didn't want to deny that request.
(20min delay)