, Columnist
Valeant Can't Paper Over Its Problems
The pharma firm's debt mountain and business woes are still overwhelming.
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When a company is as beaten-down as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is, its investors will clutch at any strand of good news.
Valeant's quarterly earnings report on Tuesday was conventionally bad, missing revenue estimates and showing a continual decline in the company's core business. But Valeant is far from conventional; upbeat rhetoric about its debts and an increase in its earnings forecast were enough to provoke a more than 20 percent jump in the share price.