# Voluntary licences and price caps for patented cancer drugs in low-income countries

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-cost-voluntary-licensing-oncology/  
OnCo record `idea-cost-voluntary-licensing-oncology` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

India's 2012 compulsory licence on sorafenib cut its price by about 97% and its 2019 cap on trade margins lowered the shelf price of 42 cancer drugs; voluntary licences through a patent pool would achieve the same without a fight.

## Summary

In 2012 India's Controller General of Patents granted Natco a compulsory licence to make sorafenib at a fraction of Bayer's price with a 6% royalty, the first for a cancer drug. In 2019 the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority capped trade margins on 42 non-scheduled anticancer drugs at 30%, cutting retail prices. The Medicines Patent Pool has since signed its first oncology licences. A standing voluntary-licensing route for essential cancer medicines, with tiered pricing agreed in advance, would give manufacturers certainty and low-income countries generic prices years before patent expiry.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Hypothesis: Voluntary licences for five patented essential cancer medicines will bring generic versions to at least 30 low- and middle-income countries within four years at prices below 10% of high-income list prices.
- Rationale: The HIV precedent shows licensing plus generic competition, not charity, is what made treatment affordable at scale.
- Proposed test: Medicines Patent Pool reports licences signed, countries covered, generic launches and prices for oncology products.
- Maturity: early-clinical
- Actor: industry

## Sources

- Medicines Patent Pool: https://medicinespatentpool.org/
- National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (India) (archived copy): https://web.archive.org/web/20250708090325/http://www.nppaindia.nic.in/
- Intellectual Property India: https://ipindia.gov.in/

## Connected records

- drugs: [Imatinib](https://onco.cc/drugs/imatinib/), [Sorafenib](https://onco.cc/drugs/sorafenib/)
- institutions: [Central Drugs Standard Control Organization](https://onco.cc/institutions/cdsco/), [World Health Organization Cancer Programme](https://onco.cc/institutions/who/)
- terms: [WHO Essential Medicines List for cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/who-essential-medicines/)
- bottlenecks: [Most of the world has almost no cancer care](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-global-access/), [Prices and value](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-drug-pricing/), [Secrecy and intellectual property block collaboration](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-ip-collaboration/)

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