Sanofi has made a non-binding proposal to acquire Medivation, Inc., a San Francisco-based biopharmaceutical company, for $52.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $9.3 billion, a move that Medivation has rejected but that Sanofi has said it will continue to pursue.

“Last November, Sanofi outlined our mid-term strategy which includes rebuilding our position in oncology, one of the largest and fastest growing therapeutic areas in the biopharmaceutical sector,” said Sanofi Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Olivier Brandicourt. “With Medivation's best-in-class offerings in prostate cancer, we believe a combination would benefit patients and, at the same time, generate value for shareholders of both companies.”

Medivation’s lead product is Xtandi (enzalutamide), a marketed prostate cancer therapy,and it has and two additional oncology assets in clinical development. The company is partnered with Astellas Pharma for the development and commercialization of Xtandi, which has been approved in the United States, Europe and other countries worldwide for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cance and in Japan for the treatment of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer. The companies are also further evaluating the drug in prostate cancer indications, advanced breast cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Medivation issued a statement on April 29, 2016 to reject the Sanofi proposal. “Over the past several years, we have established a world class oncology franchise and a unique, diversified and highly-promising late-stage development pipeline,” said David Hung, president and CEO of Medivation. “Further, we have a track record of delivering extraordinary value to our stockholders. 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. 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.”

In a statement on April, Sanofi said it remains committed to the deal. “While to date Medivation has chosen not to enter into discussions regarding this value-creating transaction, Sanofi remains committed to the combination and looks forward to engaging directly with Medivation shareholders with regard to our proposal,” said the company in a prepared statement.

Source: Sanofi (proposal for Medivation), Sanofi (commenting on Medivation’s rejection of proposal), and Medivation