Sanofi made an unsolicited offer to buy Medivation Inc for about US$9.3 billion in cash to gain experimental cancer therapies after the US drugmaker spurned its advances.
The proposed purchase price of US$52.50 per share for San Francisco-based Medivation represents a premium of more than 50 percent to the target’s two-month volume-weighted average price prior to there being takeover rumors, Sanofi said in a statement on Wednesday.
Sanofi needs new medicine to spur growth as its Lantus insulin ages and a new cholesterol drug faces a patent battle. Medivation has one marketed medicine for prostate cancer called Xtandi and two additional oncology products in clinical development.
Medivation chief executive officer David Hung declined to meet with his Sanofi counterpart and said the company’s board had no interest in discussing the transaction, according to a letter by Sanofi chief executive officer Olivier Brandicourt, the French drugmaker made public on Wednesday.
Brandicourt put the all-cash proposal in a letter to Hung on April 15. Medivation only acknowledged its receipt.
“We do not understand the delay in responding to our letter,” Brandicourt wrote. “The price we put forth represents a very substantial premium and it would be all cash without any financing condition. In these circumstances we believe it is appropriate to make this letter public, which we are doing today.”
Medivation hired defense advisers after it received preliminary interest from potential buyers, people familiar with the matter said last month. Medivation, which focuses on treatments for hard-to-cure cancers, was seeking a higher price than initial proposals have indicated, the people said.
Sanofi, which has a market value of about 101 billion euros (US$115 billion), said its non-binding proposal would not be contingent on any financing conditions.
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