SEC Charges Biopharmaceutical Company Employee with Insider Trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former employee of California-based Medivation Inc. with insider trading in advance of Medivation's announcement that it would be acquired by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. According to the SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Matthew Panuwat, the then-head of business development at Medivation, a mid-sized, oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, purchased short-term, out-of-the-money stock options in Incyte Corporation, another mid-cap oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, just days before the Aug. 22, 2016, announcement that Pfizer would acquire Medivation at a significant premium. Panuwat allegedly purchased the options within minutes of learning highly confidential information concerning the merger.