, Columnist
Betting on BioMarin
The money-losing drugmaker comes up short as a Medivation substitute.
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Could a takeover of BioMarin Pharmaceutical be Sanofi's backup plan? Recent options trading might be signaling as much.
Open interest in BioMarin call contracts has more than doubled since June, during which time it was beginning to become clear that French drug giant Sanofi probably wasn't going to succeed with its hostile pursuit of Medivation. Sure enough, on Monday morning Medivation announced that it was selling to Pfizer instead for $14 billion in an all-cash deal -- a generous price well above what Sanofi proposed and on far friendlier terms. Now, investors are piling into BioMarin, thinking that it's next on Sanofi's shopping list.