At a meeting this week, Novartis said it plans to submit cancer compounds Tasigna, for initial therapy in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and Zometa, for patients with breast cancer, to the FDA by year’s end. Novartis could make several other oncology submissions next year, including one for kidney cancer drug Afinitor, pending the outcome of ongoing clinical trials. In results of one trial, unveiled a day before the meeting, Novartis said Tasigna showed improvement over Gleevec among early-stage leukemia patients. Tasigna is already marketed for the minority of CML patients who are resistant to Gleevec, which is set to lose patent protection starting in 2015. “We have a productive and innovative pipeline that holds promise for many patients,” said Joe Jimenez, CEO of the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Division.