Sanofi pushes on with Medivation takeover attempt

Sanofi is continuing its hostile takeover bid for Medivation, urging the firm's shareholders to throw out its board.

The French firm hopes to parachute in a management team of its choosing so that it can complete the takeover without a fight.

At the same time, San Francisco-based Medivation filed a counter-strike with the US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), urging shareholders to reject Sanofi’s boardroom coup.

Sanofi, which hopes to complete the coup by 1 August at the latest, said it had “overwhelming support” from Medivation’s shareholders to accept its $9.3 takeover billion bid.

It added that the incumbent board was not acting in Medivation shareholders’ best interests by refusing the offer tabled in late April.

The French firm urged Medivation's shareholders to accept its proposed new board members, including Michael Campbell, former CEO of Arch Chemicals, and Barbara Deptula, former executive vice president of business development at Shire.

Medivation continued to argue that Sanofi’s takeover offer undervalued the company, describing the price as “opportunistic and grossly inadequate”.

At the heart of the tussle is the blockbuster prostate cancer drug, Xtandi (enzalutamide), developed in partnership with Astellas.

But Medivation also has a promising oncology pipeline, which would help Sanofi rebuild its presence in this key therapy area.

Medivation is looking to expand Xtandi’s range and has the drug in late stage development in three other cancer indications.

It also has talazoparib in phase 3 for gBRCA mutated advanced HER2 normal breast cancer, and pidilizumab in a potentially pivotal phase 2 study for relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.