Ackman hit with another Friday ‘downer’

Another Friday, another dose of bad news for Bill Ackman.

Federal regulators yesterday failed to approve Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ glaucoma drug due to concerns about the drug’s manufacturing facility.

The news sent shares of the embattled pharma giant sliding 6.7 percent on Friday, closing at $22.82.

Ackman’s Pershing Square has a 6 percent stake in the Canadian com- pany. Just days ago, he and his team said they expected the Food and Drug Administration to approve the drug, called brodalumab.

“I don’t want to raise expectations, I think the market expectation — I think — is that it will be approved, but you never know,” Ackman said in a call with investors.

Valeant downplayed the FDA decision, saying the FDA did not mention “any efficacy or safety concerns” about the drug.

Shares of Valeant are down 77 percent year-to-date, as the company has been embroiled in a mix of accounting and drug-pricing scandals that originated under the tenure of now-ousted CEO Michael Pearson.

Valeant’s dismal performance has weighed heavily on Ackman’s funds, which are down between 14 percent and 18 percent year-to-date, he revealed earlier this week.

A week ago Friday, the Federal Trade Commission settled a probe of Herbal- ife’s business practices without finding that it was a pyramid scheme. The news lifted shares of the Los Angelesbased company.

Ackman is an outspoken critic of Herbalife and he has waged a nearly 4year battle against the maker of nutrition shakes, claiming it was a pyramid scheme and that its shares would go to zero.

The hedgie’s $1 billion bet against Herbalife is currently deep in the red.