A pharmaceutical company received $4 million in royalties on the first $20 million in sales of the generic equivalent of one of its products and then $9 million in royalties on the next $108 million in sales. By approximately what percent did the ratio of royalties to sales decrease from the first $20 million in sales to the next $108 million in sales?  Choose the correct choice.
A) 8 % B) 15 % C) 45 % D) 52 % E) 58 %

Rationale: "solution : this is a percent decrease problem . we will use the formula : percent change = ( new – old ) / old x 100 to calculate the final answer . we first set up the ratios of royalties to sales . the first ratio will be for the first 20 million in sales , and the second ratio will be for the next 108 million in sales . because all of the sales are in millions , we do not have to express all the trailing zeros in our ratios . first 20 million royalties / sales = 4 / 20 = 1 / 5 next 108 million royalties / sales = 9 / 108 = 1 / 12 because each ratio is not an easy number to use , we can simplify each one by multiplying each by the lcm of the two denominators , which is 60 . keep in mind that we are able to do this only because our answer choices are expressed in percents . first 20 million royalties / sales = ( 4 / 20 ) x 60 = 12 next 108 million royalties / sales = 9 / 108 = ( 1 / 12 ) x 60 = 5 we can plug 12 and 5 into our percent change formula : ( new – old ) / old x 100 [ ( 5 – 12 ) / 12 ] x 100 - 175 / 3 x 100 at this point we can stop and consider the answer choices . since we know that 175 / 3 is just a bit less than ½ , we know that - 175 / 3 x 100 is about a 58 % decrease . answer e ."
Answer: E