On December 13, 2021, Eric Sawyer filed this petition with the Department of Health and Human Services, asking to join an outstanding march-in petition on the patents for the prostate cancer drug enzalutamide, sold under the brand name Xtandi by Astellas. The petition asks that that march-in be granted on the grounds that charging significantly higher prices in the United States than in other high income countries is not consistent with the obligation to make the benefits of the inventions “available to the public on reasonable terms.”
In his petition, Sawyer also notes that, “Prostate cancer is the opposite of a rare disease. U.S. residents should not be victims of discriminatory price gouging for this cancer drug. If anything, the drug should be cheaper in the United States than elsewhere, not more expensive, since it was invented on taxpayer funds.”
A PDF of his petition is available here: Eric-Sawyer-HHS-Xtandi-Request-13Dec2021