Tarceva Availability And Dosing

[Bill]

Just wanted to contribute a couple of interesting side notes re: Tarceva availability and dosing. It looks like obtaining Tarceva on an out-patient basis is easy and the only issue for some may be getting medical insurance reimbursement. I found securing Tarceva for my wife on an outpatient basis to be routine with prior authorization being the only insurance requirement. BUT, listen to this :

My wife was prescribed Tarceva ( by her med onc ) WHILE SHE WAS IN THE HOSPITAL. A large SO CA medical center. Iressa is on the med ctr drug formulary BUT Tarceva isn't. They still consider Tarceva an investigational drug and as such the drug cannot be prescribed or administered to a hospital patient w/o first going thru an approval process that includes committee review. In my wife's case the Tarceva was made available to her immediately on an emergency basis but only after invoking Heath & Safety Code 11167. Also, of interest her med onc prescribed 200mg. and the hospital approved 150mg. which the med onc agreed to and has maintained.

[Mr Ry]

Bill,

My medical onc was not sure about the dosage either when we first talked about it. He also thought it was 200mg. He went and checked and found that 150mg was the dosage.

I find the part about the investigational drug interesting.

John

[Justakid]

When I was on the Tarceva and admitted into the hospital they couldn't get their hands on it. I had to bring mine from home to take. Thought that was pretty weird. They didn't consider it experimental but it was so new they couldn't get it! I was on 150mg