Food for thought: Boycott VRX products

They are already teaching this in Harvard Bus School and U Penn, what MP and BA are doing has never happened. Many people don't realize that the majority of deals take 4+ yrs in M and A, this is about two yrs old (ish). Let's just say it gets signed in Dec, that's quick in M and A terms! Will be interesting to see what happens. God speed!

 

There is a website advancingallergan.com which belongs to Pershing Square. Here is the post copied from the cafepharma valeant board, the "agn" thread--

"You could create a separate email account (so your comments can't be traced back to you) and post your concerns to: questions@advancingallergan.com . The website is advancingallergan.com is Bill Ackman's dedicated site for garnering support, and in a show of just how little he cares to address real questions, the email address questions@advancingallergan.com cannot be found anywhere on the website. I had to do an advanced Boolean search in Google to find it."

 

Oh my god Ackman made another website? First with Herbalife he complains about corporations taking advantage of the little people (minorities, immigrants). Then in this case he advocates for a company who's modus operandi consists of acquiring company after company, gutting R&D (and thousands of employees), selling products where said company already did 90% of the work, raising prices (allegedly) to the detriment of patients and physicians. A tad hypocritical. But whatever lines his pockets I suppose.

 

Ironically (?), the advancingallergan.com website has a background of a research lab overwhich Ackman has written his directives for actions taken to date and requests for people to send in their AGN proxies to him to vote at the special meeting. Just thought it was perverse because, of course, Pearson has famously said his first act as CEO of "Val-Gan" (Ackman's chosen name) will be to shut down the R&D of the former Allergan.

 

Keep in mind - it's not only R&D that gets slashed - important departments like manufacturing and QA have been cut significantly with each takeover. You really think this hasn't effected products??? How has Valeant's approach impacted products like Obagi??? Jublia sat while they tried to "work around" issues that they knew about.
Wouldn't prescribe, purchase or give my own family member any product that Valeant has any control over - it's sh^* now.

 

All the Pharma CEO's are buds and cater to WallStreet, the wrist bands were cute but realize you've been had, this was over along time ago! Great drama, but realize it's all about the mighty dollar!

 

just reminding there is a private account to continue Allergan talk/strategies at agnvrx@gmail.com

 

Can someone answer one question... Why in the hell would Pearson/VRX sell off Dysport Perlane Restylane and Sculptra in a growing CASH market if he wasn't 100% sure Valeant would be getting Botox Juvederm and Juve Voluma?

 

From what I understand in the press, Pearson sold Perlane, Restylane and Emervel to Nestlé to generate cash ($1.4B) and also to scuttle any potential antitrust issues associated with taking over Allergan. With the cash, he upped the offer to Allergan, which was still refused.

For Sculptra, there was also the complication that when Valeant originally purchased the drug, they inherited the responsibility to conduct patient safety drug trials for the FDA. Pearson and other Valeant executives believed the required studies would cost too much ("The five-year safety study could cost $25M to $40M, according to Tage Ramakrishna, Valeant's chief medical officer.") They decided to do the minimal amount of work to show progress to the FDA, which resulted in a host of problems with delays and the FDA; Valeant subsequently sold Sculptra rights to a division of Nestlé, which now will be responsible for conducting the long-delayed patient safety studies.

So for Restylane and Perlane, yes, it appears Valeant is pretty confident they will acquire the better products Botox and Juvederm; for Sculptra, they don't want to deal with expensive patient safety studies.

 

Because they weren't managing them well enough and were losing either market share and/or revenue. Selling the assets was convenient because they could spin it as a proactive measure to alleviate concerns about an anti-trust suit. Yes, Valeant was confident in their ability to acquire Allergan, but if they were concerned about an anti-trust suit slowing them down, that ship sailed a long time ago, as they were confident in April that the deal would go through, and they're now planning for December.

I think their plan is simply blowing up in their face. You can see it in the way the tone has shifted. In April, Valeant had String on contingency plans in place to anticipate Allergan's next move, while Allergan was reactionary. Now it's the other way around. Allergan is negotiating with Salix, and the most Valeant/Pershing can do is make highly publicized attacks about their discontent. Those attacks aren't naturally being picked up by the media, Pershing is MAKING SURE the media is aware

 

The real answer is this market is growing hand over fist, but the AGN products are growing at a faster pace, MP knows he will get the AGN owned products fairly soon so he sold off for 1.4B to max his payout. Just say the Valergan deal is inked on 12/15/14 he would be forced to sell off the products to the highest bidder at a much lower price! Make no mistake the fat man is 100 percent certain he will own AGN and he will not stop until it happens. BA remains the X factor and does not seem to be going anywhere either, especially because the market hasn't slowed. You would think the products would suffer because of the unrest in the market but this doesn't seem to be the case, which gets MP and BA even more excited to take over AGN! Point is they are 100% sure about this takeover, AGN brass not so much! The combo stock is approx 312.00, watch for something to happen after 320.00 combined stock price! Shareholders stand to make a ton on this deal, crazy upcoming holiday season folks!

 

Truly the rhetoric of someone who cares only about his/her immediate finances (regardless of his/her financial shape), and doesn't care about the merit, feasibility, or absurdity of a debt-laden company buying a fiscally responsible one.

As was said in another thread: Valeant's pursuit of Allergan is akin to a hobo asking a middle-class man "can I bludgeon you to death, and then take your assets and home?" The hedge funds are akin to the hobo, and they can't understand why Allergan won't let them spell the company's demise.

 

True if the Hobo just donated 40M to his alma mater and had a very rich Hobo friend, just like that! Lol

 

Maybe they sold because the products were in the process of blowing up. Lets review:

VRX acquires MRX and promptly fires 75% of MRX employees
Two months later VRX eliminates consumer rebates on resty, perlane, and dysport and raises prices 10% and changes revenue recognition so that it recognizes revenue when it loads up its distributor as opposed to when distributor sells through to the doctor
Then VRX claims huge revenue growth in aesthetics in 2013
Then VRX invests in hiring a bunch of new aesthetic reps in the beginning of 2014 after firing 75% of MRX employees in 2013
Then VRX sells aesthetics business unconditionally to Nestle on 5/28/14 and says aesthetics trends are strong at the time of announcement
Then aesthetics blows up with revenue down 42% in 2Q14
VRX says this was due to confusion around the sale in the last month of the quarter. That is one explanation. Or maybe if you fire reps, eliminate consumer rebates, raise prices, and sell a bunch of products to your distributor in a high touch, highly promotional cash pay business that competes with Botox and Juvederm and Voluma, these actions eventually catch up to you.

 

This is all true but Mickey P wants Botox Juve Voluma and the new fillers due out in 2016(?). He has been clear DP and the board will be taken care of bigtime, he is not backing down or going anywhere, something has to give- but realize he sold off MRX div to get more cash for AGN deal and to avoid oligopoly laws!

 

Maybe he simply sold it off as the only alternative way of playing accounting games to an acquisition. As you know acquisitions need to occur within 12 months of each other so this is a nice placeholder since they couldn't buy anything.

 

To the person(s) that posted the play-by-play on Valeant's post-MRX actions, and now the above-quote: you're absolutely spot-on.

I don't care how much an emotionally charged post make's CP look amateurish. The above posts nailed it on the head, and any hedge fund who actually believes Valeant can bring value, should study the events listed in those posts.

 

Pyott and the board make a ton either way, the rubber will meet the road soon, I wished it was over and VRX would go away, but it's not happening! The stocks are growing like mad!

 

Both stocks fell today, which - normally - would make me react with a neutral tone. However, Valeant fell by more than twice as much as Allergan, which is a little comforting.

 

Bleh the deal spread is still really narrow. Glad I sold when VRX was 130 though, felt dirty having those shares.