• The U.S. Congress approved a stopgap measure to fund the federal government from October 1 through December 15. The measure will continue funding for the NIH and NCI at their 2014 levels. Congress will work to finalize the fiscal year 2015 budget after the November elections.

  • Medivation and Astellas Pharma announced that the FDA approved Xtandi (enzalutamide) for the treatment of men with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) who have not received chemotherapy. The drug was initially approved in August 2012 for use in patients with CRPC who had previously received docetaxel.

  • AbbVie and Google's biotech company Calico have agreed to partner and spend up to $1.5 billion to produce therapies for age-related diseases, including cancer. Calico will handle research and development, and AbbVie will be responsible for late-stage clinical trials and commercialization of products.

  • General Electric received approval from the FDA to sell its 3-D breast-imaging devices in the United States. 3-D mammography combines X-rays taken from multiple angles to create more-detailed images than traditional mammograms. Until now, Hologic, which received FDA approval in 2001, has been the only company allowed to sell the machines in the United States.

  • The Cancer Drugs Fund will get an extra £160 million ($265 million) and be extended to 2016 to help patients in England receive cancer medications that the country's National Health Service would not ordinarily cover. The infusion of cash will bring the fund, which has helped more than 55,000 cancer patients since it was set up 4 years ago, to £280 million a year.

  • Darmstadt, Germany's Merck KGaA announced that it will buy Sigma-Aldrich of St. Louis, MO, for $17 billion. Merck KGaA, which operates under the umbrella brand EMD in the United States and Canada, creates high-tech products in the pharmaceutical and chemical sectors. Sigma-Aldrich develops and manufactures a range of life science products, such as chemicals, biochemicals, and equipment for life science research.

For more news on cancer research, visit Cancer Discovery online at http://CDnews.aacrjournals.org.

©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.
2014