Valeant restates earnings, names new board members

Valeant Pharmaceuticals has filed its long-overdue financial report for 2015, plus restated results for several quarters, resolving its default on some of its $30 billion in debt and averting other problems.

The filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission confirm that the Canadian drugmaker was aggressive not just in hiking prices of older medicines, but also in stating revenue prematurely.

The restatement reduced previously reported fiscal 2014 revenue by about $58 million, net income attributable to its shareholders by about $33 million, and earnings per share by 9 cents.

The restatement for the first quarter of 2015 lowered revenue by about $21 million, but increased net income attributable to Valeant by about $24 million and earnings per share by 7 cents.

The financial reports resolve just one of Valeant's troubles, which include having several executives grilled by Congress Wednesday on Valeant's strategy of jacking up prices of medicines many times prior levels.

Valeant is dealing with three federal probes into its accounting and business practices, a huge stock plunge and insurers demanding bigger discounts from its inflated drug list prices, as activist investor Bill Ackman and others attempt a turnaround.

The company also announced on Friday that sevenmembers of its board of directors will not stand for re-election. One of the people taking their place will be new CEO Joe Papa, who was named to replace Mike Pearson last week.