Scalper1 News
Small drugmaker Medivation ( MDVN ) continued to battle Sanofi ‘s ( SNY ) hostile takeover bid Wednesday as the latter tried to replace its board, while big biotechs Celgene ( CELG ) and Gilead Sciences ( GILD ) were said to be thinking of joining the fray. Sanofi proposed eight candidates “who are willing to fully and fairly evaluate all of Medivation’s strategic options,” which it believes Medivation’s current board did not do when it unanimously rejected Sanofi’s unsolicited $9.3 billion bid on April 29. Medivation responded with a statement urging shareholders to reject the attempt, which it called “a tactic for Sanofi to facilitate its substantially inadequate and opportunistically timed proposal to acquire Medivation.” While Sanofi is the only suitor that’s gone public, anonymous sources have been telling the media that a variety of other companies are thinking of making a bid. On May 9, Medivation reportedly signed non-disclosures agreements with Pfizer ( PFE ) and Amgen ( AMGN ), implying that it is open to being bought by somebody other than Sanofi. On Wednesday Bloomberg said that Celgene and Gilead were talking to advisors about the idea, though they hadn’t actually approached the company. Both Celgene and Gilead have been urged by investors and analysts to make a sizable acquisition — especially Gilead, as its massive hepatitis C franchise is already eroding in the face of competition. Medivation’s current $1 billion in 12-month sales wouldn’t make that big of an impact on Gilead’s $33 billion top line, but much of the interest comes from Medivation’s future prospects: its prostate-cancer drug Xtandi is still ramping while the company studies its use in other diseases, and it also has a few earlier-stage drugs in the pipeline. Medivation stock, which has lately gone tight after a sharp run-up amid the buyout speculation, was down a fraction, near 62, in late morning trading on the stock market today . Sanofi was up 2%, near 41. Gilead was flat, near 86, and Celgene was up 1%, near 105. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News