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[colin]

Say a pill currently available to the public has 10 different chemicals in it. It is not currently patented. If a company were to take those chemicals and put them into a beverage, would it be novel enough to be patentable? Would the pill be prior art that would prevent a patent?

[M. Arthur Auslander]

Likely not.

[JimIvey]

My guess is that Mr. Auslander was answering your former question, not the latter.  I'd have to say that I agree with him.

The challenge here is that there's a significant body of patent law specific to chemical inventions and I'm not familiar with that body of law.  For example, what aspect of a claim specifies or doesn't specify whether the chemical components can be in an ionized solution (beverage) or a mixture (pill).  Does it make a difference?  I don't know.  

That's one of the reasons I say that a chemistry-based practice is a specialty all its own within the specialty of a patent practice.

Regards.

[M. Arthur Auslander]

Clark Boardman never put out of further edition of Chemical Inventions and Chemical Patents which I Co Authored years ago.