Report: Tarceva and Iressa favored by European oncologists for NSCLC

Oncologists across the top five European countries (EU5) are prescribing Tarceva (erlotinib hydrochloride), from Swiss drug major Roche (ROG: SIX), or Iressa (gefitinib), from Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN), as first-line treatment to 70% of their non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

Health care advisory firm Decision Resources found that oncologists in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK are prescribing the two reversible epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors in NSCLC patients with non-squamous tumors confirmed to be harboring an activating EGFR mutation.

Together with first-line prescribing of global pharma company Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) Xalkori (crizotinib) to 36% of respondents’ ALK translocation-positive NSCLC patients, despite health technology assessment (HTA) complexities in some countries, Decision Resources said this demonstrates the increasing importance of biomarker-driven prescribing in NSCLC in the EU5.