As If Patents Weren't Already Bad Enough

It was with great interest that I read a Reuter's story about Mylan suing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over granting Johnson and Johnson a patent extension on the drug Duragesic. Apparently, Mylan planned to bring a generic version of the drug to market before being cutoff by the FDA granting a 6 month patent extension.

Patent Extension...what the hell is that? A little Googling found the answer.

Apparently, the FDA and USPTO will grant drug companies patent extensions based on the amount of marketing time lost to the FDA's approval process for the drug. This sounds a lot like big drug companies in the pockets of our representatives.

Are there examples in any other field of similar laws allowing patent extensions? Where else does our government grant patent extensions when one of their bureaucracies delays a product to market?