Voluntary licences and price caps for patented cancer drugs in low-income countries
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.
Overview
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.
- Most of the world has almost no cancer care · Seven in ten cancer deaths happen in low- and middle-income countries, where radiotherapy, pathology, surgery and drugs are scarce.
- Prices and value · New cancer drugs routinely cost over $150,000 a year, often for months of benefit. Systems cannot afford them and patients go bankrupt.
- Secrecy and intellectual property block collaboration · Companies with complementary drugs rarely test them together, and data that could answer questions stays locked up.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- CompanyNatco Pharma
Shares Sorafenib, Secrecy and intellectual property block collaboration, Imatinib, Prices and value.
- IdeaPool purchasing of essential cancer medicines across countries
Shares WHO Essential Medicines List for cancer, World Health Organization – Cancer Programme, Imatinib, Prices and value.
- IdeaLimit secondary patents and pay-for-delay so cancer generics arrive on time
Shares Secrecy and intellectual property block collaboration, Imatinib, Prices and value.
- IdeaTie WHO essential-medicines listing to a published tiered price and supply pledge
Shares Imatinib, Prices and value, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaMedicines Patent Pool licences for every patented cancer drug on the WHO list
Shares Imatinib, Prices and value, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaPooled procurement and voluntary licensing for essential cancer medicines in low-income countries
Shares Imatinib, Prices and value, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaPooled international procurement of essential adult cancer medicines
Shares Imatinib, Prices and value, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaA joint price negotiation bloc for middle-income countries, modelled on Beneluxa
Shares Prices and value, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.