Valeant Cutting Ties With Philidor

Canadian drugmaker Valeant has said it will sever ties with Philidor, the specialty pharmacy it has been accused of using to falsify sales and drive selling prices.

The company’s action was prompted by a 32% drop in its share price in the two weeks after Citron Research said Valeant was leveraging Philidor to boost the price of its drugs. In a statement, Valeant CEO Michael Pearson said the newest allegations “raise additional questions about Philidor’s business practices.”

Pharmacy benefits managers Express Scripts and CVS Caremark, two of the biggest companies operating prescription drugs programs on behalf of US health insurers and employers, said they had or would terminate their contracts with Philidor.

The former said it was “in the process of terminating the Philidor pharmacy from our network,” and it was also evaluating four other pharmacy groups with which “Valeant has a similar relationship.”

CVS said it dropped Philidor after an audit found the company had not complied with the terms of an agreement.

Together the companies manage prescription drug benefits for 150 million US patients.