5 July 2019 - AstraZeneca is appealing against NICE’s decision not to recommend funding for its lung cancer drug Tagrisso (osimertinib) in untreated patients with epidermal growth factor receptor mutations.

In final draft guidance, NICE said it had rejected regular NHS funding for Tagrisso, because the survival benefits compared with standard treatment such as AZ’s older drug Iressa (gefitinib) are unclear in first-line non-small cell lung cancer.

Tagrisso has been the driving force behind AZ’s sales recovery after a steep patent cliff – it generated $630 million in Q1 alone and is the company’s top selling drug after first approval in 2015 in a more advanced form of the disease.

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