Jefferies Lifts Target On Medivation To $52 From $39 As 'Xtandi Looking Better'

Jefferies raised the price target of Medivation Inc

shares to $52 from $39 after its survey showed "meaningful improvement" in the market for Xtandi on almost all fronts. Jefferies conducted a physician survey to gauge the outlook for MDVN's Xtandi given recent changes in the metastatic castrateresistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) landscape including Xtandi's usage in prechemotherapy, and the impact from positive TERRAIN and STRIVE data in earlier stages of CRPC. The survey showed that market share has increased in all of the early lines of therapy and pre-chemo Xtandi share is up meaningfully compared to its October survey, and treatment duration in pre and post chemo has also extended. "Our survey suggests current Xtandi treatment duration of 15.1 months in pre-chemo and 8.4 months in post-chemo up from 9.4 mo and 6.4 mo respectively," analyst Biren Amin wrote in a note. According to the survey, 68 percent of respondents stated that they are aware of the STRIVE/TERRAIN clinical data. "Our data projects growth in M0-M3 population when prompted with the STRIVE/TERRAIN data. From current share to YE '17 our data projects increase of 26% share in M0, 20% in M1, and 11% in M2/3. Compendia listing of Xtandi could be an important catalyst in driving this growth," said Amin who rates the stock Hold. As such, Amin raised US sales estimates for Xtandi above consensus from 2018-2021 despite 2016-2018 estimates are now in line with consensus. The analyst sees 2021 US sales of Xtandi at $3.099 billion, up $367 million from prior estimate of $2.732 billion and $300 million from consensus estimate of $2.799 billion. For 2016, the analyst projects Xtandi sales of $1.457 billion, with peak sales of $4.9 billion in 2027. Meanwhile, Medivation has rejected Sanofi SA (ADR)

's $52.50 takeover offer, saying the bid "substantially undervalues" the company. http://www.benzinga.com/news/16/04/7907883/heres-what-medivation-said-in-its-rejection-letter-to-sanofi Shares of Medivation were up 0.90 percent to $57.28.