LONDON, Aug 22 (APM) - U.S. cancer specialist Medivation has agreed to be bought by Pfizer in a cash deal valued at about $14 billion, it was announced on Monday, trumping an offer made by Sanofi in the spring by more than $4 billion.
They said in a joint statement that Pfizer is offering Medivation's shareholders $81.50 a share, a premium of 21.35% to the stock's Friday close of $67.16 and a substantial premium to the $52.50 offer for Medivation that France's Sanofi made in April.
Pfizer's chief executive Ian Read said: "The proposed acquisition of Medivation is expected to immediately accelerate revenue growth and drive overall earnings growth potential for Pfizer.
"The addition of Medivation will strengthen Pfizer's Innovative Health business and accelerate its pathway to a leadership position in oncology, one of our key focus areas, which we believe will drive greater growth and scale of that business over the long-term."
Medivation, best known for its prostate cancer drug Xtandi (enzalutamide), said in July that it had agreed to share confidential information with potential buyers after Sanofi agreed to drop a campaign to oust Medivation's board of directors. Merck & Co and Celgene were also said to have considered bids.
In addition, Pfizer said Medivation has a promising, late-stage oncology pipeline, which includes two development-stage oncology assets, talazoparib and pidilizumab.
Talazoparib, currently in a Phase III study for the treatment of BRCA-mutated breast cancer, has the potential to be a highly potent PARP inhibitor and could be efficacious across several additional tumours.
Pidilizumab is an immuno-oncology (IO) asset being developed for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and other haematologic malignancies and has the potential to be combined with IO therapies in Pfizer's portfolio, it added.
The deal adds to the U.S. pharma's cancer drugs portfolio, which includes breast cancer treatment Ibrance (palbociclib).
Medivation's founder and chief executive Dr David Hung said: "We believe the combination with Pfizer is the right next step in our growth trajectory.
"We believe that Pfizer is the ideal partner to extend the reach of our blockbuster Xtandi franchise and take our promising, late-stage assets - talazoparib and pidiluzimab - to their next stages of development so that they can be made available to patients as quickly as possible."
In April, Pfizer scrapped a planned merger with Ireland's Allergan because of plans to change U.S. tax laws. (APMMA 47610)
The U.S. Treasury announced plans to prevent deals known as "inversions", where a U.S. firm buys a company in a country with a lower tax rate.
The Pfizer-Allergan deal, valued at $160 billion, would have been the biggest example of an "inversion" and the biggest pharmaceutical deal in history.
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