Biovail

Infobox Company
name = Biovail Corporation

type = Public
(tsx|BVF)
(nyse|BVF)
foundation = 1982
founder = Eugene Melnyk
Rolf Reininghaus
location =
area_served = North America
key_people = William M. Wells (CEO)
Dr. Douglas J.P. Squires (Chairman)
industry = Biotechnology
Pharmaceutical
products = Medicine
Drugs
market c
US$ 1.38 Billion (2008)cite web |url=http://zenobank.com/index.php?symbol=BVF&page=quotesearch|title=Company Profile for Biovail Corp (BVF) |accessdate=2008-10-07]
revenue = loss US$ 842.82 Million ("2007")
operating_income = loss US$ 188.01 Million ("2007")
net_income = loss US$ 195.54 Million ("2007")
assets = decrease US$ 1.782 Billion ("2007")
equity = decrease US$ 1.297 Billion ("2007")
divisions = Biovail Corporation
subsid = Biovail Technologies (Ireland) Limited
num_employees = 1,533 ("2008")
homepage = [http://www.biovail.com/english/about%20biovail/company/default.asp?s=1 Biovail.com]

Biovail Corporation (tsx|BVF, nyse|BVF) is Canada's largest pharmaceutical company, operating internationally in all aspects of pharmaceutical products. Its major production facility is located in Steinbach, Manitoba.

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Biovail are: Michael Van Every, Laurence Paul, Douglas Squires, Lloyd Segal, and William Wells.

AC/Gradient Analytics lawsuit and SEC complaint

In March 2006, CBS program "60 Minutes" featured Biovail in a story about its lawsuit against hedge fund SAC and Camelback (now known as Gradient Analytics), among others. According to Melynk , "there’s a group of people that got together and essentially attacked the company by putting out false reports, and we’re just fighting back for our shareholders." [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/24/60minutes/main1438812.shtml "Betting on a Fall", Lesley Stahl, "60 Minutes" story on Biovail lawsuit] ]

The alleged conspiracy began with Camelback, an Arizona stock-analysis firm that advertises that it publishes impartial financial reports on companies to help investors evaluate stocks. In the spring of 2003, the hedge fund SAC asked them for a report on Biovail. Darryl Smith, Mark Rosenblum, Demetrios Anifantis, and Robert Ballash, former Camelback employees, alleged that Camelback had allowed their client SAC to determine the content and timing of their reports on Biovail.

Camelback said those former employees were lying and disgruntled, that Anifantis and Ballash were fired because of unethical conduct; Smith for poor performance; Rosenblum was laid off. These four say they were let go after they complained to their superiors about Camelback’s practices. SAC denied all the charges in Biovail's lawsuit and said that the decline in the Biovail's stock was due to earnings shortfalls and regulatory investigations.

In March, 2008, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Biovail and some of its former officers, alleging that "present and former senior Biovail executives, obsessed with meeting quarterly and annual earnings guidance, repeatedly overstated earnings and hid losses in order to deceive investors and create the appearance of achieving earnings goals. When it ultimately became impossible to continue concealing the company's inability to meet its own earnings guidance, Biovail actively misled investors and analysts about the reasons for the company's poor performance." Biovail settled for $10 million US. [ [http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-50.htm SEC Charges Biovail Corporation and Senior Executives With Accounting Fraud] , U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission press release, March 24, 2008] Gradient Analytics, successor to Camelback, issued a press release stating that the SEC’s suit "confirms the validity of Gradient’s critical analysis of Biovail but raises serious questions about how companies retaliate against analysts with threats, intimidation, and lawsuits." [ [http://www.gradientanalytics.com/news/GA%20RP%20BVF%2020080325.pdf Gradient Analytics' Early Research Identified Same Issues as Charges in SEC Complaint Against Biovail. SEC Credits Analysts Who Questioned Biovail, but Retaliation Against Independent Researchers Through Lawsuits Continues] , Gradient Analytics press release, March 25, 2008 (PDF)] [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/business/25biovail.html?_r=1&oref=slogin U.S. and Canada Accuse Drug Maker of Fraud] , Ian Austin, New York Times, March 25, 2008]

60 Minutes has been accused of botching the Biovail story by the Columbia Journalism Review's Audit columnist and the New York Times's Joe Nocera, who felt Lesley Stahl accepted Biovail's conspiracy theories about short sellers without proper consideration. [ [http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/do_not_post_biovail.php 60 Minutes Blows Biovail Story] [http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/60_minutess_biovail_trainwreck.php 60 Minutes’s Biovail Trainwreck (cont.)] [http://select.nytimes.com/2006/04/01/business/01nocera.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&sq=nocera%20and&oref=slogin]

References

External links

* [http://www.biovail.com/ Official site]

* [http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B2AA5F6D6-C23B-4AB6-9C9D-C2D794BCA0BE%7D Herb Greenberg- Why suing critics usually backfires]