A flurry of approvals in late December made 2012 the best year for approvals in more than a decade, especially for biologics. And the beat goes on with six new medical entity approvals already in 2013. Notable among this quarter's approvals is the first new drug in 40 years for drug resistant TB and the diabetes drug Forxiga, a first in class sodium-glucose transporter inhibitor approved by the EMA. Some combination trials gave promising results in hepatitis C and Hodgkin's lymphoma. But Alzheimer's disease claimed another candidate with the suspension of a clinical trial of BMS' gamma secretase inhibitor.