Valeant Trends Down Following Oversight Committee Release Of Docs

Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc VRX were trading lower by more than 3 percent early Tuesday afternoon following the release of a memorandum from the U.S. Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The memorandum, titled "Documents Obtained by Committee from Valeant Pharmaceuticals," follows an investigation into the "skyrocketing prices" of certain prescription drugs. The U.S. government obtained more than 75,000 pages of documents from Valeant, including emails to and from the company's CEO, Michael Pearson.

"The documents obtained by the Committee demonstrate that Valeant identified goals for revenues first, and then set drug prices to reach these goals," the memorandum stated.

The documents that the Committee collected also showed that Valeant "employed a public relations strategy used by other drug companies to distract public attention away from its price increases."

The memorandum singled out two drugs that Valeant acquired in February, 2015 - Isuprel and Nitropress. Following the acquisition, the company increased its prices by 525 percent and 212 percent overnight.