Did Valeant Pharmaceuticals Capitulate Its Pricing?

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) has been at the heart of controversy for quite a while now, at a royal expense to its shareholders. The stock is currently valued at roughly 10% of its high within the past year, and the company is looking for options to change its direction or at least its public perception.

Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, went so far as to call this company a “sewer,” and there is good reason behind this. We’ve seen a CEO departure and catastrophic earnings within just the past two months alone, adding more flames to what some might see as a dumpster fire.

Currently the company is trying to change its tune by announcing that it will offer an enhanced rebate program to all hospitals in the United States, in an effort to reduce the price of Nitropress and Isuprel. These two drugs were previously under some scrutiny regarding Valeant’s pricing mechanism for its drugs.

According to this new enhanced rebate program, all hospitals are eligible for a rebate of at least 10%, with rebates totaling 20%, 30% or 40% based on volume purchased during a calendar quarter for hospitals that purchase large volumes of the relevant drug. This program will be effective immediately, with hospitals receiving rebates after the end of the quarter in which the purchases were made.
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Hospitals will receive these discounts primarily through their group purchasing organization (GPO). The hospitals that don’t buy drugs through a GPO can access the program by contacting Valeant customer service.

Separately, the Patient Access and Pricing Committee also confirmed that there would be no further price increases for these products or reductions to the discount levels in the rebate program.

However, the question remains of whether this program will work and change the public perception of Valeant, and if the company can put out these flames.

Newly appointed Chairman and CEO Joseph Papa commented:

Under this new program, the discounts we previously implemented for Nitropress and Isuprel will be simplified and more accessible. I understand the concerns our partners in the health care community have had about the pricing of these drugs, and we want to ensure hospitals and patients can get the drugs they need.

Shares of Valeant were trading down 2.2% at $25.32 Monday morning, with a consensus analyst price target of $60.89 and a 52-week trading range of $23.55 to $263.81.