Gefitinib: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Gefitinib is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Tablet
- Sold as
- Iressa
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
Every gefitinib product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: Iressa.
What gefitinib pills look like
Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.
| Imprint | Strength | Colour | Shape | Maker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N;250 | 250 mg | brown | round | — |
| IRESSA;250 | 250 mg | brown | round | — |
| 250 | 250 mg | brown | round | — |
| QL | 250 mg | brown | round | — |
| QL | 250 mg | brown | round | — |
How long gefitinib keeps
No gefitinib label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.
Does gefitinib expire? The in-use limits and storage rules from its labelsWhat people report to the FDA about gefitinib
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 2,038 reports naming gefitinib, and the FDA flagged 98% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- malignant neoplasm progression610 reports
- drug resistance488 reports
- acquired gene mutation219 reports
- diarrhoea172 reports
- rash142 reports
- metastases to central nervous system112 reports
- egfr gene mutation109 reports
- nausea93 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean gefitinib caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
Can you take gefitinib with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run gefitinib against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does gefitinib come in?
Across the brands we track, gefitinib is currently marketed as tablet, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic gefitinib?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled gefitinib product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Gefitinib: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/gefitinib
- MLA
- “Gefitinib: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/gefitinib.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for gefitinib on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.