Valeant stock up after positive comments

TORONTO — Shares in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International shot higher Tuesday after senior executives said the company has made significant progress toward resolving the many legal and financial issues that have beset the company for nearly two years.

The beleagured drug company said it’s ahead of schedule on a critical debt reduction program and has made progress on outstanding legal issues. Moreover, Valeant’s core businesses — Bausch + Lomb/International and Salix — grew their combined revenue by eight per cent after excluding the impact of divestitures.

“We clearly are looking at what we think are exciting opportunities for the future of Valeant,” said Joseph Papa, Valeant’s chairman and chief executive.

He noted that Valeant’s dermatology business continues to underperform and it will continue to work towards resolving its legacy legal issues. “And that will really be our focus for the next three months and next year,” Papa said.

Valeant announced its second-quarter loss was reduced to $38 million attributable to shareholders as the company sold assets and reduced debt. The loss, reported in U.S. dollars, amounted to 11 cents per share compared with a loss of $302 million or 88 cents per share for the 2016 second quarter. Revenue also fell year-over-year, to US$2.23 billion from US$2.42 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amoritization slipped to $951 million for the second quarter of 2017, from $1.09 billion last year.

Valeant also lowered its 2017 revenue guidance range to between $8.70 billion and $8.80 billion, from between $8.90 billion and $9.10 billion, citing the divestitures.