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• Position: NC TREND: Triangle Region

Three North Carolinians have a prominent role in charting the direction of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, which lost more than 80% of its market value in the last year after allegations that it gouged customers and misstated financials. Robert Ingram, general partner at Hatteras Venture Partners in Durham and a former CEO of Glaxo Wellcome, has been chairman or lead director of Quebec-based Valeant since 2010. In March, former University of North Carolina System President Tom Ross and Fred Eshelman, founder of Wilmington-based Pharmaceutical Product Development and Morrisville-based Furiex Pharmaceuticals, joined the Valeant board.

Revenue exploded to an estimated $10 billion last year, compared with $1.2 billion in 2010, mostly due to acquisitions of more than a dozen companies. Among the purchases were two Raleigh companies, publicly traded Salix Pharmaceuticals and privately held Sprout Pharmaceuticals, bought last year for $11 billion and $1 billion, respectively. Valeant's share price increased fivefold from 2012 to 2015 but stumbled over the last year after criticism that it had jacked up drug costs by as much as 500% and sharply cut research spending. The company's market value in mid-April was about $11.5 billion, barely more than the price paid for Salix.

Valeant's fall from grace started after questions arose last year over its drug-pricing practices and its relationship with a mail-order pharmacy, Philidor, that critics say blocked efforts by insurance companies and others to use cheaper generic drugs rather than Valeant's more...