Valeant's mistakes raised profit, destroyed value: Ackman

Washington

AFTER US$77 billion in lost market value, congressional hearings and corporate stumbles, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc's CEO and its biggest hedge fund booster stood before a Senate committee, raised their right hands in truth, and said the drug company had gotten things wrong.

"We have made mistakes," Mike Pearson, Valeant's CEO, said at the Special Committee on Aging's hearing on high drug prices. "Valeant was too aggressive. And I, as a leader, was too aggressive."

"While raising the prices of these drugs increased the profits of Valeant, it destroyed enormous shareholder value," said Bill Ackman, who sits on the company's board and whose Pershing Square Capital Management LP was one of its biggest h…