With AstraZeneca plc's failure of Iressa in non-small-cell lung cancer, the winners were Genentech Inc. and partner OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. and their drug Tarceva - also an epidermal growth factor inhibitor - which was approved for the indication last month. (BioWorld Today)

As expected, Amgen Inc. won FDA approval of Kepivance (palifermin), its fast-track keratinocyte growth factor for mucositis in chemotherapy patients with blood cancers who get bone marrow transplants. (BioWorld Today)

To investigate a Chinese herbal drug that might hold the key to malaria, computer magnate Bill Gates and his wife Melinda are granting $42.6 million to a nonprofit group and fledgling Amyris Biotechnologies Inc., which will work with the University of California at Berkeley to develop artemisinin. (BioWorld Today)

Drink your milk. That parental edict, heard less often in recent years, had as much to do with the hectored youngster's need for vitamin D (with which the disliked cow juice was enriched), as with the importance of calcium for bone strength.

With a protocol approved by the FDA and a trial under way with its lead product, delivery firm Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co. will net about $32.8 million through a private placement of about 3.1 million shares of common stock at $11.20 per share. (BioWorld Today)