By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) - The chief executive of
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (NYSE:VRX) VRX.TO , which is
under scrutiny for dramatically hiking the price of older drugs,
has been summoned to testify at a U.S. congressional hearing on
April 27, the panel said on Monday.
The Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing comes as the
Canadian-based company is coping with a variety of federal
investigations into its accounting practices that led to a
restatement and delays in the filing of its annual report.
Valeant said last week CEO Michael Pearson (LON:PSON) would step down,
after a board committee probing the company's ties to specialty
pharmacy Philidor Rx Services had found accounting problems
dating back to December 2014. Billionaire William Ackman, whose
Pershing Square (NYSE:SQ) Capital Management owns a 9 percent stake in
Valeant, has joined the company's board.
A spokesperson for Valeant did not immediately respond to an
email seeking comment.
U.S. prosecutors in Massachusetts and Manhattan are probing
Valeant's pricing and distribution channels, while the
Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating its
accounting and disclosure issues.
The Senate committee is one of two congressional bodies that
are looking into aggressive prescription drug pricing.
Both committees are particularly focused on Valeant and
Turing Pharmaceuticals, a private company founded by Martin
Shkreli, a 32-year-old entrepreneur who has come under fire for
raising the price of the drug Daraprim by more than 5,000
percent to $750 a pill.
In February, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform held a long and contentious hearing on drug
pricing.
At that hearing, Shkreli, who is facing unrelated securities
fraud charges, asserted his Fifth Amendment right against
self-incrimination.
Pearson did not testify at the hearing in the U.S. House of
Representatives because he was on medical leave. Howard
Schiller, Valeant's then-interim CEO and former chief financial
officer, testified in Pearson's place.
Since then, however, Valeant has publicly accused Schiller
and the company's corporate controller with "improper conduct"
which helped contribute to a misstatement of its financial
results.
Schiller, through his attorneys, has denied any wrongdoing.