OSI Pharmaceuticals - Tarceva

Tarceva

Tarceva (Erlotinib) was OSI's flagship and, as of 2007, only marketed product. Tarceva is a small molecule inhibitor of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and is the only EGFR inhibitor to have demonstrated the ability to improve overall survival in advanced non-small cell lung cancer and advanced pancreatic cancer. Tarceva was discovered by Pfizer as CP-358774 (Moyer et al. Cancer Research, 1997, 57:4838), renamed OSI-774 when Pfizer was required to divest the compound in order to complete the buyout of Warner lambert/Parke-Davis and subsequently developed by OSI in conjunction with Genentech.