Description of Business

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Description of Business

NOTE 1. DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

Medivation, Inc. (the “Company” or “Medivation”) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of medically innovative therapies to treat serious diseases for which there are limited treatment options. Through the Company’s collaboration with Astellas Pharma, Inc., or Astellas, it has one commercial product, XTANDI^® (enzalutamide) capsules, or XTANDI. XTANDI has received marketing approval in the United States, Europe, and numerous other countries worldwide for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, or mCRPC, and in Japan for the treatment of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer, or CRPC. The Company and Astellas are also conducting investigational studies of enzalutamide in prostate cancer, advanced breast cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Under the Company’s collaboration agreement with Astellas, it shares with Astellas equally all profits (losses) related to U.S. net sales of XTANDI. The Company also receives royalties ranging from the low teens to the low twenties on ex-U.S. XTANDI net sales and certain milestone payments upon the achievement of defined development and sales events.

The Company seeks to become a global fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company through the continued commercialization of XTANDI, the acquisition or in-license and development and commercialization of other product opportunities, and through the advancement of its own proprietary research and development programs. The Company expects that its future growth may come from both internal research efforts and third party business development activities. In the fourth quarter of 2014, the Company licensed exclusive worldwide rights to pidilizumab (which is referred to as MDV9300), an immunomodulatory antibody for all potential indications from CureTech, Ltd., or CureTech. Under the license agreement, the Company is responsible for all development, regulatory, manufacturing, and commercialization activities for MDV9300. The Company currently anticipates that it may initiate a pivotal clinical trial evaluating MDV9300 in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma in 2015. The Company is also considering evaluating MDV9300 in other indications, including in other hematologic malignancies. In the third quarter of 2015, the Company entered into an asset purchase agreement with BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., or BioMarin, to acquire all worldwide rights to talazoparib (which is referred to as MDV3800), an orally available poly-ADP ribose polymerase, or PARP, inhibitor. The acquisition of MDV3800, which is currently in a Phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with germline BRCA mutated breast cancer, was completed in October 2015, as further discussed in Note 15, “Subsequent Events.” In addition, the Company has various other internal research and discovery efforts focused, among other areas, in oncology and neurology.