If that would happen you can forget about any attempts to research and develop any new and innovative medications...what? then the academics could do it? Trust me, I've been doing R&D in the industry for more than 20 years, no way they could do it. We discard 100's if not 1000's of compounds before we advance 1, and that takes years. The hurdle is very high, you need new, unprecedented mechanisms, safety, great pharmacokinetics to advance a compound...maybe 10 years from synthesis to the clinic, then spend tens if not hundreds of millions to test it in humans...the days of "me too" medications were over years ago. Drug companies feel compelled to hit home runs now, not singles...shortening patent lives would lead to no new drugs...but yeah, everything would be cheap.