{"entity":{"id":"idea-cost-voluntary-licensing-oncology","kind":"idea","name":"Voluntary licences and price caps for patented cancer drugs in low-income countries","aka":[],"tldr":"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.","asOf":"2026-09-10","links":[{"label":"Medicines Patent Pool","url":"https://medicinespatentpool.org/"},{"label":"National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (India) (archived copy)","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20250708090325/http://www.nppaindia.nic.in/"},{"label":"Intellectual Property India","url":"https://ipindia.gov.in/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["sorafenib","imatinib"],"companies":[],"institutions":["who","cdsco"],"pathways":[],"terms":["who-essential-medicines"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-global-access","b-drug-pricing","b-ip-collaboration"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"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.","test":"Medicines Patent Pool reports licences signed, countries covered, generic launches and prices for oncology products.","maturity":"early-clinical","actor":"industry","cost":"medium","horizonYears":4},"route":"/ideas/idea-cost-voluntary-licensing-oncology/","neighbours":{"drug":[{"id":"imatinib","kind":"drug","name":"Imatinib","route":"/drugs/imatinib/"},{"id":"sorafenib","kind":"drug","name":"Sorafenib","route":"/drugs/sorafenib/"}],"institution":[{"id":"cdsco","kind":"institution","name":"Central Drugs Standard Control Organization","route":"/institutions/cdsco/"},{"id":"who","kind":"institution","name":"World Health Organization Cancer Programme","route":"/institutions/who/"}],"term":[{"id":"who-essential-medicines","kind":"term","name":"WHO Essential Medicines List for cancer","route":"/terms/who-essential-medicines/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-global-access","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Most of the world has almost no cancer care","route":"/bottlenecks/b-global-access/"},{"id":"b-drug-pricing","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Prices and value","route":"/bottlenecks/b-drug-pricing/"},{"id":"b-ip-collaboration","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Secrecy and intellectual property block collaboration","route":"/bottlenecks/b-ip-collaboration/"}]}}