A scrum to acquire US cancer drug company Medivation Inc (NASDAQ:MDVN) was emerging on Wednesday after reports that Merck (NYSE:MRK), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) were among at least five pharmaceutical companies expressing an interest.
According to a Thomson Reuters report, the companies submitted their interest to buy Medivation earlier in August.
Demand for new cancer treatments that can augment years to a patient’s life and derive billions of dollars of revenue is rife.
Others said to be interested in the US company are France’s Sanofi SA (NYSE:SNY), and Celgene Corp (NASDAQ:CELG), the sources told the news agency.
Sanofi made an offer of $58 a share for Medivation but this was rejected in early July. Read more.
In April, various reports claimed AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) was among companies considering making possible takeover bids for Medivation. But that later did not materialise. Read more.
Medivation shares were up 2% at $66.50 on Wednesday.