patent protection

Saw the Coversyl rep yesterday and heard the spiel re the new formulations. Hard to know whether she believed her own spin on the reason for the change, to extend shelf life. Have never heard of a shelf life problem but have indeed heard of patent protection - change of formulation, clinically irrelevant change in chemical strutcture, new indication .... the list goes on.
May sometimes have a positive result if a company puts cash back into R and D, but wish the companies would let their reps be honest. It's hard to communicate effectively with someone when you both know they're telling porkies.