Stocks in News: Medivation (NASDAQ:MDVN) & Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY)

Drugmaker Medivation, Inc.(NASDAQ:MDVN) plans to split each of its shares into two, the company said on Tuesday.

The company said stockholders who own Medivation shares as of Sept. 7 will get one additional share for each share they own on September 21 and the split will be effective when trading begins on Sept. 24.

The intention of a stock split is to make the shares cheaper and more attractive to retail investors and also to increase the volume of shares in the market.

The split will double the company's outstanding number of shares and halve its share price.

Medivation, whose shares trade on the Nasdaq, had 36.8 million shares on the market as of Aug. 3.

Shares of Medivation lost 23 cents to close at $96.17 Tuesday. The stock surged in November on positive clinical trial data for its prostate cancer pill enzalutamide, and continued to climb on results from a second trial in February. The shares reached an all-time high of $103.89 on July 27.

Meanwhile Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.(NASDAQ:ALNY) and Monsanto Company(NYSE:MON) are collaborating to develop biological pesticides that use RNA interference technology, which shuts down the proteins at the root of a disease or condition.

The 10-year collaboration announced on Tuesday will expand the offerings of Monsanto's BioDirect technology platform, which uses molecules found in nature to combat viruses, weeds, and insects.

Alnylam will get $29.2 million upfront from Monsanto, and $1.4 million of that total will go to Alnylam's partner Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc.

It can also receive funding for collaborative research. Both Alnylam and Isis will also be eligible for future milestone payments and royalties from sales of any products that are developed.

You have read this article with the title Stocks in News: Medivation (NASDAQ:MDVN) & Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY). You can bookmark this page URL http://calliecountrychatter.blogspot.com/2012/08/stocks-in-news-medivation-nasdaqmdvn.html. Thanks!