Roche has cut the price of its new lung cancer drug, Tarceva, by nearly 30 per cent in England and Wales in a pioneering effort to gain market share and win National Health Service reimbursement.

Franz Humer, chairman of the Swiss pharmaceutical company said on Tuesday that hundreds of patients were likely now to be able to gain access to Tarceva through hospital specialists at a discount while awaiting the outcome of a fresh review by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the UK government’s medicines advisory body.