The ferment continues in the biotech sector: the US pharmaceutical giant is close to the second largest operation after last year's acquisition of Hospira. California Prey specializes in prostate treatment. In Italy, Molmed is in the spotlight with an EU authorization
22 August 2016 – R.it ECONOMY & Finance
The ferment continues in the sector of the large pharmaceutical giants, recently affected by extraordinary activities of great importance. The American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer would now be close to buying the biotech group Medivation, specialized in anticancer treatments, for about 14 billion dollars. The indiscretion bounces from the Anglo-Saxon press, which cites sources close to the operation which, all in cash, should be announced within a few hours.
Pfizer's offer is one to which it does not seem possible to say no: it goes well beyond the value of Medivation whose shares closed on Friday at 67.16 dollars for a stock market valuation of 11.1 billion dollars. But by taking over Medivation, Pfizer could add to its portfolio the prostate cancer drug 'Xtandi' which promises, according to analysts, to generate $1.33 billion in revenues alone by 2020. The idea expressed by the Pfizer CEO , Ian Read, already last May was precisely the one to acquire drugs mature for the market, considering that the portfolio is already full of drugs in the less advanced stages of launch.
On the other hand, the biotech group was also targeted by the French of Sanofi, who last spring had tried to acquire 
Medivation, however, offering "only" 10 billion dollars: in that case, a resounding "no" had come from California which had sparked the interest of other possible suitors: Gilead, Celgene and Amgen. The new deal, if it appears to go through, would be Pfizer's largest acquisition since last year's $17 billion purchase of Hospira.
Also in Italy, at the same time as the news on Pfizer, there is news in the biotech sector. The European Commission has in fact authorized the conditional marketing of Zalmoxis, the cell therapy developed by Molmed based on the engineering of the immune system for the treatment of leukemia and other blood cancers. It is an advance authorization, granted to medicinal products with a positive evaluation of the risk/benefit ratio, able
to solve significant therapeutic needs, and the availability of which would translate into a significant benefit to public health. News that pushes the stock to Piazza Affari, with double-digit growth.
