LONDON/NEW YORK - Pfizer Inc agreed to buy Medivation Inc in a deal that values the company at about $14 billion and leaves French drugmaker Sanofi jilted.
Pfizer will pay $81.50 a share in cash, the companies said in a statement on Monday. Shares of Medivation, which closed at $67.16 on Friday, climbed about 20% in early US trading.
By acquiring Medivation, Pfizer gains a blockbuster prostate-cancer treatment, Xtandi, that’s already approved for sale in the US and elsewhere, and that analysts project will generate $1.33 billion in annual sales by 2020.
Pfizer CEO Ian Read said in May that he was more interested in acquiring late-stage assets because the company already had plenty of early-stage drugs in the works.
The deal is a blow to Sanofi’s cancer ambitions. It has spent five months both courting and pressuring Medivation to reach a takeover agreement.
Sanofi CEO Olivier Brandicourt may have pushed his case too aggressively. After Sanofi’s initial offer of $52.50 a share was spurned, the Paris-based drugmaker chose to go straight to Medivation investors, seeking their support to oust the board. Medivation warned of a “devil’s bargain” that would usher in new directors who might settle for a takeover price that wasn’t in shareholders’ interest. Sanofi dropped the hostility in July as Medivation agreed to enter into confidentiality agreements.