An Unlikely Route to Limiting Drug Prices

Should the government revoke a drug’s patent in the effort to control runaway drug pricing?

Activists and congresspeople have called for just that measure in the case of prostate cancer drug Xtandi, arguing that the medication’s $129,000 price tag — several times the price in other countries — is sufficient cause for either revoking the drug’s patent, or at least considering it.

But analysts at Height Securities and Evercore ISI said that was unlikely to happen, given the National Institutes of Health’s prior stance on the issue.