Valeant PharmaceuticalsPharma is increasingly encroaching on device makers’ territory, but that strategy may have backfired for one drug company that tried to jump on the bandwagon.

December 17, 2015

1 Min Read
Medtech Losers of 2015: Valeant Pharmaceuticals

Valeant Pharmaceuticals

Pharma is increasingly encroaching on device makers’ territory, but that strategy may have backfired for one drug company that tried to jump on the bandwagon.

In May, Canada-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals purchased Arizona-based Paragon Vision Sciences, a maker of specialty contact lenses and provider of materials used to manufacture gas-permeable contact lenses. Previously, in 2013, Valeant snapped up Bausch + Lomb, the contact lenses market leader which also makes materials used in gas-permeable contact lenses.

The two acquisitions combined put Valeant in command of the lion’s share of the supply chain for gas-permeable lenses, and the company quickly set to jacking up prices, refusing to supply some lens makers, and other shady business practices, according to investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica. Regulators caught on, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation of Valeant this past fall. 

          

 

[image courtesy of MARIN/FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET]

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