[matthewmcg]

The situation described in the article doesn’t seem to be related to patents. Rather this appears to be a generic drug with a very small market.

There is only one producer of an approved formulation and they are charging too much.

The article mentions that the compound (lutetium octreotate) has been in use for a long time, suggesting that any patent term on the compound has lapsed. Novartis’ specific preparation has been approved for this use by the EMA. Compounding pharmacies have the right to prepare the drug without this approval, which they could not do if the compound was subject to a patent.

Theoretically another company could make a generic version of this but the market is probably too small to justify the approval costs.