Pfizer spends $14 billion on cancer drug firm Medivation

Pfizer Inc., a New York City-based company with a presence in Rockland County, said that it will buy the biopharmaceutical company Medivation Inc. in a deal worth about $14 billion.

Medivation is based in San Francisco. The company is a manufacturer of a leading drug that treats prostate cancer.

“The proposed acquisition of Medivation is expected to immediately accelerate revenue growth and drive overall earnings growth potential for Pfizer,” Ian Read, Pfizer”™s chairman and CEO, said in the Aug. 22 announcement.

Medivation”™s drug portfolio includes Xtandi, which treats men with advanced prostate cancer and generated $2 billion in sales over the last year, according to a press release from Pfizer. The drug has treated 64,000 men in the U.S. since its approval by the FDA in 2012. Xtandi is being further developed for potential treatment of advanced breast and liver cancer, Pfizer said.

Pfizer still controls about 500,000 square feet of space on its former campus in Pearl River and will lease 1.2 million square feet of space from the campus”™ current owner, Industrial Realty Group LLC. IRG bought the 550-acre property from Pfizer in 2015 for about $39.45 million. The campus will be converted into a mixed-use complex, but Pfizer has pledged to maintain at least 600 jobs there for research and development.

Pfizer took over the property in 2009, when it bought Wyeth Pharmaceuticals for $68 billion. It has reduced the workforce on the property in that time from about 4,000 at its peak 20 years ago.