Valeant investors doubting drugmaker's chief can regain grip

Boston

MICHAEL Pearson and his company, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, were supposed to calm Wall Street doubters on Tuesday. Instead: chaos.

What began before dawn with disappointing financial news quickly snowballed into the worst day in the drug company's history, leaving investors wondering if Mr Pearson, its controversial chief, can regain his grip.

The CEO, who built Valeant on a stream of acquisitions, returned from a two-month medical leave for pneumonia just two weeks ago. He found the company in worse shape than he left it after last year's drug-pricing scandal. And then came Tuesday. The indignities came fast and furious: a US$600 million typo in a press release, a conference call that left analysts and investors baffled and angry, Valeant's top investor, the Sequoia Fund, losing US$1.26 billion on a 51 per cent stock drop, and news that the company doesn't have its numbers straight enough to to file its earning…