RPT-Valeant CEO to tell U.S. Senate he regrets raising heart drug prices

(Repeats for wider distribution)
By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - Outgoing Valeant
Pharmaceuticals VRX.TO Chief Executive Michael Pearson (LON:PSON) plans
to tell a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday that he regrets his
decision to acquire and jack up the price of two life-saving
heart drugs, saying it was all a "mistake."
"The company was too aggressive- and I, as its leader, was
too aggressive - in pursuing price increases on certain drugs,"
Pearson said in prepared testimony before the Senate Special
Committee on Aging.
The Senate committee is one of two U.S. congressional panels
investigating the sky-rocketing price increases of certain
decades-old drugs made by companies including Valeant and Turing
Pharmaceuticals, a company founded by Martin Shkreli.
Pearson will appear on Wednesday alongside Valeant's
activist investor and board member William Ackman, and board
member Howard Schiller, where they are expected to be peppered
with questions of the company's business and pricing practices.
Pearson's latest comments strikes a conciliatory tone
compared with his comments last October, when he wrote a letter
to the Senate panel's top Democrat to defend the company's
acquisition of the heart drugs from Marathon Pharmaceuticals in
2015.
After that acquisition, Valeant increased the price of
Isuprel by about 720 percent. It also increased the price of
Nitropress several times, ultimately raising it to $880.88 from
a starting price of $214.83.
"In hindsight I regret pursuing, transactions where a
central premise was a planned increase in the prices of the
medicines," Pearson said in the testimony.
"We should have abandoned the transaction with Marathon when
it became clear that the expected arrival of generic competition
made the economics of the deal dependent on significant price
increases," he said.
Valeant is facing investigations by U.S. prosecutors into
its drugs pricing. It is also under fire for accounting problems
in connection with its prior business relationship with
specialty pharmacy Philidor RX Services.
Last month, it appointed Ackman to the board, delayed filing
its annual report and disclosed it needs to restate its
earnings.
Pearson is expected to step down in the next few weeks to
make way for the incoming CEO, Joseph Papa, previously of
Perrigo Company PRGO.N .
In his testimony, Pearson said he expects Papa will "no
longer be seeking to acquire mispriced drugs."