Patient Advocacy Groups Decry NIH Refusing to Exert March-In Rights for Prostate Cancer Drug Xtandi

March 24, 2023

Patient advocacy groups are speaking out after the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) decided against exercising march-in rights, which allows the government to share patents developed with public funds, on Pfizer’s and Astella’s prostate drug Xtandi. The move would’ve lowered prices for the drug, but the agency ruled that the effort involved was not justified based on the remaining length of the patent.

According to Paul Schloesser, “However, three patients — Clare Love, Robert Sachs and Eric Sawyer — have called foul. Their original petition took issue with Xtandi’s price, which the trio said is three to six times higher in the United States than in other high-income countries. They argued that patent holders are required by law to make products invented with federal funds “available to the public on reasonable terms.””

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