Tarceva erlotinib regulatory update

The U.K.'s NICE issued a preliminary appraisal recommending against the use of Tarceva erlotinib from Roche 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" £50,000 ($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 £20,000-£30,000 per QALY for the agency to consider it cost-effective. The closing date for comments is July 7.

In 2008, NICE recommended the small molecule EGFR inhibitor as an alternative to docetaxel as a second-line treatment for NSCLC only when overall treatment costs of Tarceva are the same as those of docetaxel (see BioCentury, Dec. 8, 2008). ...