Medivation

Medivation won FDA approval for MDV3100 today, setting up the quick commercialization of another prostate cancer drug that will further change an already roiled cancer market. The drug, later dubbed enzalutamide and now called Xtandi, won an OK a full three months ahead of the agency's PDUFA date. Astellas is partnered on the program.

Medivation has added another set of stellar data on enzalutamide, its promising prostate cancer treatment now up for a priority review at the FDA. New late-stage results published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicate that advanced stage, therapy-resistant patients in the drug arm survived 5 months longer than the control group.

As recently as January, tests to use Medivation's Dimebon (latrepirdine) as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease were deemed to be an abject failure. But today, scientists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and their international colleagues say they see a new round of promising mouse trials as giving the drug another chance because it seemed to generate stunning results by targeting the neurodegenerative condition at an earlier stage.

Now that Amylin and Human Genome Sciences have dickered their way to a buyout deal, you can expect to see plenty of more rumors and insider stories about the next biotech companies likely to get an offer.

Thousands of experimental meds are winding their way through various stages of clinical trials today, and the largest category among the contenders is cancer drugs.

Analysts are rejigging their sales estimates for Johnson & Johnson's prostate cancer pill Zytiga , on the promise that it could target a much larger set of patients.