Sure. The effective patent life for a pharmaceutical is said to be between 7 and 12 years but for something like an antibiotic, you'd have to expect that a new improved model may appear a lot quicker than that, forcing a much quicker payback period usually funded by high prices in the USA.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
