Many Lapsed patents??, page-7

so we are talking about the inventive step (the recipe) in this scenario.

you are only protected once you are approved and have a claim to make. this is great if the cake has already finish being made, you can submit your IP it will go to provisional, you provide your evidence and be approved.
(as part of approval there is a global search and check of all prior claims)

however in the case of drug development the cake can take years and years submitting your IP and not being able to provide proof within the required timeframe will eventually get you lapsed, companies can continue to pay to resubmit but it's pretty expensive on the lawyers so you do see them laps. (and no benifit to do so)

the reason it's done early even though they know it will laps it because it documents a clear claim and to make sure that you are 'first'

so when you do finally show say 8 years down the line hey we got fda approval finally the cake recipe works and I can prove it. I can also show you that my claim originated 8 years ago before any others worked on it. I've documented historical proof that I've been working on it for 8 years.

this is a bit different to say invention of the synthetic as this is new and novel in the world (the cake is finished as soon as I invented it in the world for the first time) I can provide proof right away.