Valeant moving on from troubled past with name change

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is changing its name to Bausch Health Companies Inc. as it works to move further past the issues that tarnished its reputation and sullied its brand.

The company, which has been working to turn itself around in recent years, said the switch will come in July and also involves changing its stock market ticker symbol to BHC on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges.

Chairman and CEO Joseph Papa said the company considered a number of options before determining that the chosen moniker reflects the full scope of its activities, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices and over-thecounter consumer products.

The name change only involves its corporate identity with brands such as Bausch & Lomb and Salix retaining their identities.

“I’m excited about this development because it signals we’ve reached an important point in the turnaround process with the steps we have taken are yielding concrete results and we are beginning to turn the page away from legacy issues that have been headwinds over the past years,” he said Tuesday during a conference call.

In the past two years, the company said it has completed more than a dozen divestitures and reduced its debt by more than 20 per cent or $6.9 billion, including $280 million in the first quarter. The drugmaker also said it continues to resolve legacy legal issues, such as about 20 more lawsuits or investigations this year.

They include a settlement for $1.875 million with the California Department of Insurance about the terminated relationship with mail-order pharmacy partner Philidor Rx Services. Valeant said it reached an agreement with no admission or findings of liability.

“Importantly, we’ve resolved cases that represent in the aggregate over $1 billion in alleged exposure and our team has been able to do this for substantially less than initially claimed amount of exposure,” Papa told analysts.