NY • A group of Chinese investors said it is acquiring ad-tech start-up Media.net for about US$900 million (S$1.2 billion) in cash, with plans to sell it eventually to an obscure telecommunications firm whose shares were suspended from trading from a year ago.
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Pfizer will pay about $14 billion in cash for the cancer drug company Medivation, a deal that will add the pricey late-stage prostate cancer treatment Xtandi to its oncology portfolio.
Pfizer’s drug IBRANCE treats metastatic breast cancer, so Medivation’s product should fit in well and help Pfizer to have products that effectively treat two of the top cancers in annual incidence (in the US) after lung cancer.
Pfizer CEO Ian Read called the acquisition a “rare opportunity” to add an established treatment and a pipeline of drugs under development.
Medivation is a specialty drugmaker, focused on developing medicines for cancer and serious diseases with few treatment options. It has been furiously playing catch up, mainly through partnerships with university researchers and other drugmakers.
Xtandi has drawn attention from the public interest group Knowledge Economy International, which has protested the $129,000-a year list price for the treatment. Federal health care programs like Medicare cover the cost of most Xtandi prescriptions, but private insurance carriers set their own coverage levels on the medication. The Financial Times first reported on Pfizer nearing a deal for Medivation earlier on Sunday.
Medivation also has two late-stage oncology assets, talazoparib, which is aimed at treating breast cancer, and pidilizumab for blood cancer.
Pfizer will pay US$81.50 a share in cash, the companies said in a statement yesterday.
Pfizer said the deal was approved by boards of both companies and should be completed in the third or fourth quarter.
The deal comes four months after Pfizer and Ireland-based Allergan Plc scrapped their $160bn merger.
In this Monday, Nov. 23, 2015, file photo, people walk past Pfizer World Headquarters in NY.
Pfizer, like virtually all pharmaceutical companies, is making a big push into oncology. And company shares have begun to climb after years in the doldrums.
Medivation effectively put itself on the market after it turned down an unsolicited $9.3 billion buyout bid from French drugmaker Sanofi earlier this year.
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Pfizer’s rumored offer of more than $80 per share represents a huge premium compared to Sanofi’s last offer.
