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Big brass ones.

I guess no one will ever use the nickname Prince Valeant to describe him, eh?

Big Brass Ones indeed.

The problem I see, is that if they were “inflating revenue” you are looking at SEC investigations, Federal penalties, and then Civil suits from aggrieved customers and investors. And when the Feds have access to your books, they can then look at anything and everything.

I don't claim to understand the accounting alleged to be irregular here, but probably unlike most on FR and unlike the first few articles I googled trying to learn more about this tempest I've been familiar with Valeant and Philidor for several months. Valeant sells many medications useful to my Dermatology patients. As all will have noted, in the era of Obama, costs of many drugs have exploded, insurance coverage of them have plummeted. All in the medical field will have noted there has also been an explosion in clerical work required of us to obtain what insurance coverage remains. Through Philidor Valeant has offered my patients and my staff a refreshing alternative.

For patients prescribed drugs on Philidor's list I give them a script for them to try filling normally. If they're happy with the way that goes, fine. But if they find their regular pharmacy's price to be higher than they like or if their insurance wants me to fill out a stack of pre-authorization paperwork I tell them we'll instead use Philidor. I have a one page form, personalized with my office's information, that covers all 27 products conceivably of Dermatologic interest. We fill in the drug's name, quantity and directions and the patient's name, phone number, date of birth and zip code. Period! We fax that one page to Philidor and tell the patient to call Philidor later to provide their own shipping, payment and if they have any, insurance, information. Philidor ships out the medication and deals with any insurance on its own. They have two price tiers, one for folks with insurance and a cash only price for those who don't. The former tops at $35 and the latter at $75. My staff reports zero patient complaints to date and it is MUCH easier for us than the usual pre-authorization paperwork run around. I've had a couple other other drug company representatives tell me they intend similar plans, but none have yet provided sufficient details to use them.

The only losers I see at the consumer end are the local pharmacies and their distribution networks. I value them as useful sources of information for my patients and as sometimes invaluable sources of information for me with complicated patients. I don't want to see them hurt, but I strongly value a free market. Until we can get Obama, et al, out of the middle of things this strikes me as a reasonable approach at the consumer end of the business model. Now if they really are cooking the corporate books to make this work at the other end and are thus defrauding investors there may be a problem, one I'm not qualified to specifically evaluate. Although I'm confident getting rid of Obama, his friends, and their policies would greatly reduce the potential for such problems.