OSI sees $2 bln Tarceva sales by 2011

By Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson

BOSTON (Reuters) - The chief executive of OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OSIP.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Thursday said annual sales of the company's lung and pancreatic cancer drug Tarceva could reach $1 billion by 2008 and double to $2 billion by 2010 to 2011.

He said the drug, which is sold in partnership with Genentech Inc. (DNA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and had U.S. sales last year of $275 million, will be bolstered by surging demand in Europe and Japan, and by expanded uses of the drug.

"I think European sales of Tarceva will be bigger than U.S. sales by 2008 to 2008," OSI Chief Executive Colin Goddard told reporters at the Reuters Biotechnology Summit in Boston.

"We think Tarceva is going to be a blockbuster. We've never varied from that belief," he said of the drug, which is sold in Europe by Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) with royalties going to

OSI.

Goddard said OSI expects to gain Tarceva approval in Japan for lung cancer by next year, and that Japan will become another big market for the company's cancer pill.

OSI is also hoping that Tarceva will eventually gain approval to treat lung cancer at an earlier stage of the disease -- it is currently approved as a 2nd and 3rd line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer -- as a treatment following surgery and for use against a wide range of cancers.

The company is studying the drug in head and neck cancer, ovarian cancer, brain tumors and colon cancer. Goddard said Tarceva appears to be particularly effective in non-small cell lung cancer among patients who were not smokers.  Continued...