Cure-all, Inc., has developed a drug that will diminish the effects of aging. Cure-all has spent $1,000,000 on research and development and $2,108,000 for clinical trials. Once the drug is approved by the FDA, which is imminent, it will have a five-year sales life cycle. Laura Russell, Cure-all’s chief financial officer, must determine the best alternative for the company among three options. The company can choose to manufacture, package, and distribute the drug; outsource only the manufacturing; or sell the drug’s patent. Laura has compiled the following annual cost information for this drug if the company were to manufacture it:

Management anticipates a high demand for the drug and has benchmarked $235 per unit as a reasonable price based on other drugs that promise similar results. Management expects sales volume of 3,000,000 units over five years and uses a discount rate of 10 percent. If Cure-all chooses to outsource the manufacturing of the drug while continuing to package, distribute, and advertise it, the manufacturing costs would result in fixed costs of $1,500,000 and variable cost per unit of $80. For the sale of the patent, Cure-all would receive $300,000,000 now and $25,000,000 at the end of every year for the next five years.

Required

Determine the best option for Cure-all. Support your answer.

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Cost Category Fixed Costs Variable Cost per Unit Manufacturing $5,000,000 $68.00 Packaging 380,000 20.00 1,125,000 Distribution 6.50 Advertising 12.00 2,280,000