Went digging through for past articles. This has been a long-running situation. For context, Nexavar was patented in India in 2008 (it's first FDA approval, for

Went digging through for past articles. This has been a long-running situation. For context, Nexavar was patented in India in 2008 (it's first FDA approval, for advanced liver cancer was granted in 2007, a process started in 2004). According to this article [1] from last year, Bayer was running a program that gave ~70% of Nexavar users a 90% discount from their in India market rate ($5500 USD monthly). The generic maker sells at $176 monthly, and per licensing fees, pays Bayer 6% of net sales. Also, about the nature of the drug. It's basically a treatment of last resort. The initial study that granted it FDA approval for in advanced liver cancer showed a 3-4 month increase in median survival time compared to placebo (remember, this is with cases that have exhausted other options). Further studies show some greater synergistic effects combined with other treatments. Also, in a study with a smaller population, and slightly different subtype of liver cancer showed an overall median survival time of 26 months (it's unclear to me from reading the abstracts how the baseline conditions of the two trial's patients compare, so it's difficult to directly compare their results). [1] http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/bayer-to-appeal-against-indias-patent-ruling-on-nexavar/article4484568.ece http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/bayer-to-appea...