Dive Brief:
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The board of Medivation Inc. on Friday rejected a $9.3 billion all-cash purchase offer from Sanofi.
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Dr. David Hung, Medivation's CEO, said Sanofi's proposal "is designed to seize for Sanofi value that rightly belongs to our stockholders."
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Medivation's key product is the prostate cancer therapy Xtandi (enzalutamide).
Dive Insight:
Medivation's response to Sanofi's bid didn't take long: Sanofi announced Thursday that it had made the offer, which works out to about $52.50 a share. Hung, who is also a founder and president of Medivation, issued a strong response Friday morning in a statement that rejected the bid.
"Sanofi's opportunistically timed proposal, which comes during a period of significant market dislocation and prior to several important near-term events for the company, is designed to seize for Sanofi value that rightly belongs to our stockholders," he said in the statement. "We believe the continued successful execution of our well-defined strategic plan will deliver greater value to Medivation's stockholders than Sanofi's substantially inadequate proposal."
Sanofi said Thursday that there was "a compelling strategic rationale" for acquiring Medivation because of Sanofi's "significant presence in prostate cancer and a strong heritage in oncology."
"The proposed combination has an attractive financial rationale as it would be immediately accretive to earnings and would offer value creation opportunities for Sanofi shareholders," the company said in a statement Thursday.
The offer is 50% above Medivation's average share price for the past two months, but lower than Medivation's share price Thursday. Medivation shares are up over 70% in the past three months amid takeover rumors.