The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7472 p374
6 October 2007

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

NICE to re-examine erlotinib following appeal

Erlotinib (Tarceva, Roche) is to be re-examined by a National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence appraisal committee after a NICE appeal board overruled the institute's original decision not to recommend the drug for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer on cost-effectiveness grounds.

The NICE appeal board ruled that the cost-effectiveness of erlotinib should be re-examined because the appraisal committee had not taken proper account of the reduced cost of treating adverse events resulting from treatment with erlotinib, compared with that of docetaxel.

Peter Littlejohns, NICE’s clinical and public health director, said: “Until NICE issues final guidance on the use of erlotinib for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, individual cases should be assessed at a local level within the NHS.”

In the meantime, Roche has cut the cost of erlotinib to the NHS so that its average cost per patient matches that of the comparator drug, docetaxel.