Timeline of turmoil – Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ troubled March 2016
pharmafile | April 4, 2016 | Feature | Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Share price, Valeant, fall, month from hell, timeline, turmoil
As far as months go, March 2016 couldn’t have gone much worse for Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The Canada-based company has been surrounded by controversy for many months now, but that quickly descended into turmoil this month. Here’s how it unfolded:
Mar 1: Shares plummet 20% on SEC investigation announcement
It was a bad start to the month for Valeant as their shares dropped 20% upon the release of their statement confirming that they were under “several ongoing investigations” including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US Attorney’s Offices for Massachusetts and the southern district of New York.
Mar 2: Clinton steps up attack on Valeant in latest campaign advert
Pharma has been something of a target during the campaign for presidential nominations, but none more so than Hilary Clinton’s advert attacking what she called the “predatory pricing” of Valeant. Pledging to go “after them”, she promised that such price increased would be stopped.
Mar 3: Group chairman and executive vice president resigns
Things really didn’t start well for Valeant this month, with Deb Jorn stepping down from her position with responsibility for the US dermatology and gastrointestinal therapeutic areas with a management shake-up following.
Mar 10: Valeant ends controversial litigation with R&O Pharmacy
Details were scarce but the company indicated that their settlement with the pharmacy included a payment to the Canadian drug maker. The spectre of the Philidor controversy had loomed heavily over this issue.
Mar 11: US Congress Committee pressures Valeant to produce drug pricing documents
The House Oversight Committee sent a letter to chief executive, Michael Pearson, repeating their request to the company to produce documents relating to price increases on heart drugs Isuprel and Nitropress. Valeant responded that they would indeed hand these documents over, having already provided “more than 78,000 pages of documents.”
Mar 15: Valeant cuts 2016 sales, earnings outlook; shares plunge over 47%
A dark day for the company, shares plunged by almost half upon the news that they had sharply scaled down their expected revenues and adjusted earnings per share. Blaming “continued organisational distractions” for the drop in sales in the final quarter, they issued revised guidance that revenues could be as much as half a billion dollars below previous forecasts in the first quarter alone.
Mar 21: Announcement of CEO’s departure made – other senior executive refuses to step down
The culmination of several months of turmoil, Michael Pearson’s return to his role as CEO following illness at the beginning of the year was cut short following the announcement of his departure, once a suitable replacement is found. However, his stand-in while ill, Howard Schiller, rejected the board’s request to follow suit and step down due to his “improper conduct”. Schiller made a statement denying the accusations, saying “at no time did I ever provide any incorrect information to the Audit and Risk Committee.”
Mar 28: Pearson subpoenaed by congressional committee – shares drop even further.
The Senate Aging Committee issued a subpoena to Michael Pearson to testify before them concerning the “sudden, aggressive price spikes of decades-old Rx drugs”. Due to take place on Wednesday April 27th, this announcement led to shares falling another 6% to $29.09.
Sean Murray
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