Over the past month, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. has been struggling to calm its investors about its declining stock price, which was reportedly due to the rumors surrounding the company's organic growth, its drug pricing and its connections with the controversial specialty pharmacy called Philidor.
On Tuesday, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. CEO Michael Pearson told investors and analysts through a conference call Philidor Rx Services has stopped handling insurance claims for drugs and it will stop its operations by the end of January. But as the company immediately severed its ties with the shady specialty pharmacy, its dermatology business will feel the sting.
"The downsides in Q4 will be in dermatology and in ... neurology to some extent," Pearson said, as per Business Insider. "Obviously the closure of Philidor will impact Q4."
Valeant's call, however, failed to alleviate the concerns regarding its volatile shares, which remarkably fell 7.5 percent. The company's stocks turned higher later Tuesday following one of Valeant's main critics announced he had trimmed his short positions in the stock, Reuters noted.
"My short on Valeant has been significantly scaled down from where it was earlier," Citron Research's Andrew Left said in an interview on Tuesday.
In October, the Canada-based drug maker had triggered a sharp decline in the stock after Citron Research claimed Valeant was using an undisclosed relationship with Philidor to increase their profits, as previously reported. The company, which is currently under investigation for their aggressive drug pricing practices in the United States, has since cut ties with Philidor, saying it is also probing its practices.
Due to Valeant's transparency, Canaccord analyst Neil Marouka said that the company's move to make a conference call to investors and analysts was a good step in rebuilding stockholders' confidence since the uncertainty on its pricing practices have taken a toll on its stocks.
"We believe management's openness and transparency on the call was a good first step in rebuilding investor confidence," Maruoka said in a note.
Meanwhile, Valeant CEO Mike Pearson was willing to restore his holdings in the company. However, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. would not let him. As a matter of fact, Goldman Sachs sold 1.3 million of Pearson's Valeant shares last week. According to Bloomberg Business, Pearson wanted to put up more assets as a collateral but Goldman Sachs did not allow it.
"Goldman did not give me the opportunity to put any more collateral," Pearson said on a conference call with analysts. "I wish they had, but they didn't."
Pearson, who is paid in performance-based bonuses of cash and stock and receives no cash salary, had borrowed the money from Goldman Sachs to pay for gifts to his alma mater, Duke University, and to fund a community swimming pool, stock purchases and tax payments. These kind of loans are a way for executives to pay for their lifestyles while holding on to their companies' shares. But when stocks fall, the CEOs can be forced to sell.
Goldman Sachs Andrew Williams, however, declined to comment on the issue.
