Pfizer Inc, beating out numerous other bidders, said it would buy U.S. cancer drug company Medivation Inc for $14 billion in cash, adding its blockbuster prostate cancer drug Xtandi to the company's growing oncology roster.Medivation Shares were up 20 percent at $80.43 in midday trading, just shy of the offer price of $81.50 per share. "The Medivation deal increases the likelihood of a split," said SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst John Boris. Reuters had reported that Pfizer, Merck, Celgene Corpand Gilead Sciences Inc had submitted expressions of interest to buy Medivation. Morgan Securities and Evercore were Medivation's financial advisers, while Cooley LLP and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as its legal advisers.Up to Friday's close, Medivation shares had risen about 58 percent since Sanofi's first offer. (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson in New York and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Source: Economic Times August 22, 2016 16:07 UTC