Valeant

Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International fell the most in five months as the Costa Mesa drug developer regroups after its president quit last month. Valeant reported April 1 that its president, Charles J. Bramlage, quit in late March and that it couldn't estimate the costs of a planned restructuring, which includes firings and asset sales. The price fell $1.12, or 8.3%, to $12.44 a share, and earlier declined 10%. Valeant also fell in early November after third-quarter earnings missed estimates.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, the developer of a novel drug for epilepsy, said Tuesday that its president had quit and that it might have to fire staff and sell assets. Valeant President Charles J. Bramlage resigned last week and "has agreed to assist the company with transition matters over the coming weeks," the Costa Mesa-based company said in a regulatory filing.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International named J. Michael Pearson, formerly of consulting group McKinsey & Co., as chief executive to succeed Timothy C. Tyson, who resigned. Pearson will also become chairman immediately, replacing Robert A. Ingram, who will remain as lead director, the company said. Valeant stock has lost 31% of its value in the last year. That includes a 17% drop Nov. 1 after the Aliso Viejo, Calif., company's earnings missed estimates. Valeant last month sold U.S. and Canadian rights to hepatitis C drug Infergen to focus on more profitable drugs and streamline its sales force.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International swung to a loss in the third quarter, citing distribution delays in Mexico and weak U.S. sales for some products, the Aliso Viejo-based drug maker said Thursday. The third-quarter loss totaled $12 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with earnings of $13.7 million, or 14 cents, a year earlier, the company said. Revenue dipped 1% to $208.6 million.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International's former president must repay the drug maker at least $4.8 million over a bonus tied to a unit's aborted spinoff, a Delaware judge has ruled. Valeant directors, led by former Chief Executive Milan Panic, violated their duties to shareholders by awarding the bonus to Adam Jerney after the company sold 20% of its Ribapharm hepatitis drug unit to the public, Chancery Judge Stephen Lamb found. A planned spinoff was later abandoned.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said Tuesday it was recording $31.1 million in additional expenses for stock-based compensation awards. The Costa Mesa-based company, maker of an anti-nausea drug related chemically to marijuana, said in a regulatory filing that most of the awards were granted before a change in management and the board of directors in mid-2002. Valeant said its financial statements for 2003, 2004 and 2005 were restated, as well as selected data for 2001 and 2002.

Schering-Plough Corp. said it agreed to license an experimental treatment for hepatitis B from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International and Metabasis Therapeutics Inc. Costa Mesa-based Valeant will receive an upfront payment of $19.2 million, and La Jolla-based Metabasis, $1.8 million, Schering-Plough said. Valeant licensed the drug, pradefovir, in 2000 from Metabasis and has been testing it for hepatitis B, a potentially fatal liver disease that affects 2 billion people, the company said.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said Monday that it would restate some financial results because of errors in the Costa Mesa company's accounting for stock options. Based on the review so far, the company said financial statements for 1997 and after should no longer be relied upon because of option accounting errors. Moody's Investors Service reacted to news of the accounting errors by placing Valeant's debt under review for possible downgrade.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International disclosed Monday that federal regulators had launched an inquiry into stock trades that were made this spring when the Costa Mesa company released results of a drug trial. In a statement, Valeant said the Securities and Exchange Commission had also asked for information about Valeant's efforts to recover controversial bonuses paid to company founder and former Chief Executive Milan Panic.

Milan Panic, the controversial executive who became a symbol of corporate excess, agreed to pay $20 million to Costa Mesa-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International to settle charges that he received unwarranted bonuses four years ago as the company's chairman. The payment settles all outstanding disputes between Panic and the company he founded, formerly known as ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., Valeant said Thursday.