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Drugmaker Medivation ( MDVN ) missed Wall Street’s Q1 estimates and affirmed guidance late Thursday, as it fended off the increasingly hostile attentions of big pharma Sanofi ( SNY ). Medivation’s revenue rose 41% over the year-earlier quarter to $182.5 million, missing analysts’ consensus by $14 million, according to Thomson Reuters. Net income climbed 35% to 11 cents a share, badly missing consensus of 23 cents. Medivation nonetheless affirmed its full-year guidance, calling for $900 million to $970 million in revenue and $1.30 to $1.40 in EPS. Last year, it made $1.01 a share on $943 million in revenue. The company’s revenue comes from royalties on its prostate-cancer drug Xtandi from Japan’s Astellas, which markets the treatment. Medivation said that Xtandi brought in a total of $547 million in the quarter and should sell $1.425 billion to $1.525 billion in the full year. “Consistent with the first quarter of 2015, our first-quarter 2016 non-GAAP net income was impacted by several seasonal items, including the lower royalty rate on ex-U.S. Xtandi sales, the higher gross-to-net (i.e. rebating) accrual by Astellas on U.S. net sales, inventory drawdowns and the previously mentioned SG&A (sales, general & administrative) expenses related to our Astellas collaboration,” Medivation said in its earnings release. Medivation stock was down a fraction in after-hours trading, following its earnings release. Shares had risen a fraction in Thursday’s regular session to 59.22. Earlier Thursday, Medivation rejected a renewed $9.3 billion buyout offer from Sanofi, which Sanofi first made last week, and which Medivation rejected as undervalued. Sanofi CEO Olivier Brandicourt said in a letter to Medivation’s directors that “there is overwhelming support by your shareholders for a transaction.” He said he preferred to engage with Medivation’s management rather than go hostile, but “if you are not prepared to engage with us, we have no choice but to go directly to your shareholders. As you know, your shareholders have the ability to act at any time by written consent to remove and replace the board.” Medivation responded with a press release saying that there was nothing new in the letter and that the offer was still inadequate. Meanwhile, rumors continued to fly about other interested parties. AstraZeneca ( AZN ), Novartis ( NVS ) and Pfizer ( PFE ) had already been named by anonymous sources in previous weeks, but on Thursday Bloomberg reported that big biotech Amgen ( AMGN ) was also pondering a bid as it seeks a major acquisition to fill out its aging drug portfolio. Weeks of buyout speculation have driven the stock up more than 120% since its 30-month low, hit on Feb. 9, helping it to a strong IBD Composite Rating of 97 and the No. 50 spot on the IBD 50 list of top-performing stocks over the past 12 months. Scalper1 News
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