This morning, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it had approved the AstraZeneca (nyse: AZN - news - people ) drug for treating advanced cases of non-small-cell lung cancer, which is the most common form of lung cancer in the United States.

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Separately, Pfizer said that the Food and Drug Administration has approved Xalkori capsules, which the company calls the first-ever drug targeting anaplastic lymphoma kinase, or ALK, for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer that is ALK-positive.

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However, on a July 31 conference call, Bristol's Cornelius said the deal had been inspired not just by the improving prospects for Erbitux, which recently had good study results in non-small-cell lung cancer, but also by the promising experimental cancer drugs ImClone has advanced over the past two years.

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Most notably, we completed U.S. and Japanese filings for crizotinib in ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer and U.S. and EU filings for axitinib in advanced renal cell carcinoma.

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