NICE rebuffs Tarceva
The U.K.'s NICE issued a preliminary appraisal recommending against the use of Tarceva erlotinib from Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY) for the maintenance treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients with stable disease after platinum-based first-line chemotherapy. NICE said that Tarceva could not be considered a cost-effective use of NHS resources in the indication because the most plausible incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) would be "well above" L50,000 ($73,275) per quality-adjusted life year (QALY). It is generally accepted that a technology must have an incremental cost less than or equal to L20,000-L30,000 per QALY for the agency to consider it cost-effective. The closing date for comments is July 7. ...