'Charged with a crime for doing his job': VALEANT DUO FIGHTS BACK (VRX)

Lawyers representing Andy Davenport and Gary Tanner, the two executives arrested Thursday and charged with "engaging in a multimillion-dollar fraud and kickback scheme," said the two will prove their innocence. 

The lawyer representing Andy Davenport — the CEO of Philidor, the secret pharmacy whose discovery led to a crisis at Valeant Pharmaceuticals — said Thursday that his client will "vigorously defend himself."

And the lawyer representing Gary Tanner, a former Valeant executive who went on to work for Philidor, said that Tanner had been "charged with a crime for doing his job."

Here is the statement from Davenport's lawyer, Jonathan Rosen, at the law firm Polsinelli:

"Andy Davenport worked with full transparency and, along with a broad Valeant team, built a best in class pharmacy. Mr. Davenport was committed to patient service and worked around the clock to ensure that patients timely received those medications prescribed by their doctors. Philidor also benefited Valeant, which is why Valeant and its highly sophisticated and active management team sought to buy it.When Philidor launched as a small pharmacy, Andy Davenport worked tirelessly, folding shipping boxes at night, to ensure that Philidor delivered on its promise to deliver patient medications on time. Mr. Davenport earned his success with integrity and hard work and will vigorously defend himself and his good name."

Howard Shapiro at WilmerHale, who is representing Tanner, said: 

“It was Gary Tanner’s job at Valeant to grow and promote Philidor. He performed that job exceptionally well, greatly benefiting Valeant’s shareholders, and regularly communicated to his superiors what he was doing.  Today he has been charged with a crime for doing his job. We will demonstrate his innocence at trial.”

US prosecutors are separately investigating former Valeant CEO Michael Pearson and CFO Howard Schiller, Bloomberg News has reported.

In a press release on Thursday, Valeant said: "The company, former CEO, former CFO, and current executives have not been charged at this time."

The relationship between Valeant and Philidor was exposed by the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation in October of last year.

Though Valeant initially tried to downplay the role of Philidor, the company had a detailed sales plan dubbed the "Philidor strategy," and company documents show that Valeant used the pharmacy to increase the volume of shipments for two of its drugs, Solodyn and Jublia.

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