After five months of deliberation, the US National Institutes of Health on Monday rejected a request by several consumer groups to override the patent on a prostate cancer drug, because the medicine is more expensive in the United States than elsewhere. And one of the consumer groups plans to seek an appeal.
Last January, the groups petitioned the NIH to take this step, which is known as a march-in right, to help US patients because federally funded research was used to create Xtandi. The drug is sold by Astellas Pharma and has an average wholesale price in the United States of more than $129,000, about two to four times more than what other high-income countries are paying, according to the consumer groups.
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