Amgen Inc. opted for a license arrangement rather than an equal partnership with Nuvelo Inc. for the Phase III-ready clot-dissolver alfimeprase, the lead product candidate that is the subject of a deal started almost three years ago. (BioWorld Today)

If there's anxiety lingering after the FDA's summer ruling about potential cancer toxicity with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), you wouldn't know it from Wyeth - which entered a potential $372 million deal with Plexxikon Inc. to develop treatments for diabetes and metabolic disorders. (BioWorld Today)

As ever, cancer drugs were much in the news last week, with Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s stock taking a 33 percent hit after the firm disclosed a likely delay in getting its renal cancer drug approved - and the drugs are going to make headlines even more often in the months ahead. The stories may be even sadder for approved drugs.