Insight - Beijing buyers club? China's cancer patients gamble on grey market

FILE PHOTO: The logo of AstraZeneca is seen on a medication package at a pharmacy in London April 28, 2014. To match Insight CHINA-CANCER/BLACK MARKET REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - When her father's lung cancer worsened, Yin Min, a 51-year-old financial broker from Shanghai, faced a choice: pay nearly $3,000 a month for an approved drug or pay a fraction of the price for a generic drug not approved for use in China.

Yin, like many families in China, turned to the increasingly popular, unregulated market of online pharmacies, agents and peer groups for drugs.