Drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals, which moved its headquarters from Aliso Viejo to Canada late last year, is the story of the day on Wall Street with a hostile takeover bid for Pennsylvania biotechnology company Cephalon Inc.
Shares of both companies were up Wednesday, a day after Valeant went public with a $5.7 billion offer for Cephalon.
Shares of Cephalon closed up nearly 30% Wednesday to a market value of $5.7 billion. Valeant was up 12% to nearly $15 billion.
In September, Valeant was acquired by Canada’s Biovail Corp. for $3.2 billion.
Biovail kept the Valeant name and now is run from the former Biovail’s Toronto-area headquarters with operations in tax-friendly Barbados.
J. Michael Pearson, who ran Valeant before the Biovail acquisition, now runs the combined company. He appeared on CNBC Wednesday morning to talk about the Cephalon offer.
Valeant got its start as ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. and was based in Costa Mesa before moving to Aliso Viejo in 2006.
The company still has operations in Aliso Viejo.
Valeant makes antidepressant, pain, antiviral and generic drugs.
