Despite the relentless talk of speeding up product approvals, the US FDA is at least pretty consistent, if not marginally ahead, to repeat the same volume of oncology approvals this year as it did last.

Taiho Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Japanese major Otsuka, is planning US and EU filings following the release of top-line results from a Phase III study of its metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) drug TAS-102.

Aveo Oncology announced yet another failure in a long line of setbacks for the cancer drug tivozanib on 13 December: an interim assessment has shown that the drug is not likely to meet the primary endpoint in the Phase II BATON clinical trial in the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC).

Merck Serono has licensed a preclinical PARP inhibitor from the Chinese firm BeiGene. The deal comes after the German firm signed an agreement for a BRAF inhibitor from BeiGene in May (scripintelligence.com, 5 June 2013).