Valeant focuses on launch of new products
Still grappling with its towering debt, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. on Tuesday focused on promoting several new consumer health products that the company hopes will reinvigorate its shrunken cash flows.
Management at the Laval, Que.-based company have been forging ahead with a dramatic restructuring of the company following a product pricing scandal, selling billions in assets and tightening its focus on a few select segments of the business. The corporate makeover has in turn placed pressure on management to provide new consumer products that will generate fresh revenue streams.
“As we think about the future the very clear direction we have is going to be to grow this business as a result of launching new products,” Valeant CEO Joseph Papa told analysts at a second quarter earnings call Tuesday.
In the second quarter, Valeant pared back its revenue outlook for 2017, while also suggesting it could beat its target of divesting US$5 billion in assets by February 2018.
The company has stepped up efforts to pay off its debts and plans to sell off its iNova Pharmaceuticals and Obagi Medical Products divisions for a combined US$1.12 billion, expected to close in the second half of the year. Valeant also closed its US$811 million sale of Dendreon Pharmaceuticals over the second quarter.
Management said Tuesday it had also trimmed back its number of sales representatives to 150, down from around 250.
Papa acknowledged that the company’s turnaround would be gradual, but aimed to reassure analysts that the battered company is beginning to take form. “It’s not going to happen overnight,” he said.
He said the firm’s next step is to make adjustments to its dermatology business, which has been a sticking point with analysts. “We know that the business is not performing up to expectations,“he said.
Papa also sees particular potential in its IDP-118 product, a lotion used to treat plaque psoriasis, as well as several other consumer health products within its Salix drug division.