Valeant to Restate Results, Shares Fall

CANADA-VALEANT

Valeant Pharmaceuticals said it would restate its financial results for 2014 and 2015 after identifying some sales to Philidor that should have been recognized when products were dispensed to patients.

Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals slumped about 18 percent on Monday, the second straight day of steep declines, wiping out more than $6 billion of the Canadian drugmaker's market value since Thursday.

The company "preliminarily identified certain sales to Philidor during 2014, prior to Valeant's entry into an option to acquire Philidor, that should have been recognized when product was dispensed to patients rather than on delivery to Philidor," Valeant said in a statement on Monday.

Valeant, whose stock was also pressured by concerns about its failure to say when it would release its 2015 earnings, said it would hold a conference call on Feb. 29 to discuss results for the fourth quarter.

The company said it would delay filing its 10-K as it awaits completion of the review of related accounting matters.

Valeant said the restatement will reduce its reported 2014 GAAP earnings by about 10 cents per share and increase 2015 GAAP earnings by about 9 cents per share.

The company also said about $58 million of revenues included in the second half of 2014 should not have been recognized on delivery of the product.

Valeant cut ties with specialty pharmacy Philidor Rx Services in October after it was revealed Philidor used aggressive tactics to try to increase insurer reimbursement, mostly for dermatology drugs to help the Canadian drugmaker inflate revenue.

Valeant was pummeled late last year when questions about its business and accounting practices spooked investors, with the stock shedding 70 percent in 2015 from its August high of $263.81. The stock is down 25 percent this year, as of Monday's close.

(Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)