Valeant: a focus of heated investor debate

March 7, 2014: Jim Grant, editor of the investment journal Grant's Interest Rate Observer, called Valeant a “financialized pharma company” more concerned with its “towering share price” than with research and development. Grant said Valeant does most of its compound hunting in the stock market, not the lab.

April 22, 2014: Valeant and Pershing Square Capital’s Bill Ackman offer to buy Botox maker Allergan for $47 billion.

May 14 , 2014: Bronte Capital’s John Hempton said the fund had initiated a short position in Valeant. He said Valeant’s accounts are "difficult to comprehend."

May 15, 2014: James Chanos, founder of Kynikos Associates accused Valeant of playing "aggressive accounting games" and criticized its acquisition strategy. Chanos said he had a short position in Valeant even before the announcement of the Allergan deal.

June 9, 2014: Bill Ackman says James Chanos is wrong in his short thesis on Valeant.

June 16, 2014: Allergan releases email exchanges with Morgan Stanley in which the bank called Valeant a “house of cards.”

March 9, 2015: Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital discloses that it has taken a 5 percent stake in Valeant.

June 11, 2015: Long-time Valeant investor ValueAct Capital Management said it sold 4.2 million shares of Valeant. It said its stake in the pharmaceuticals company was still worth more than $3 billion.

October 21, 2015: Andrew Left's Citron Research likens Valeant to Enron and accuses the company of using specialty pharmacies to inflate its revenue.