Valeant might give a board seat to Bill Ackman's hedge fund

Thomson Reuters

Embattled drug company Valeant Pharmaceuticals, whose stock price has tumbled 38 percent this year, is mulling giving board seats to activist hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, one of its biggest investors, and two other people, a person familiar with the matter said.

Stephen Fraidin, a veteran Wall Street lawyer who is now vice chairman at William Ackman's Pershing Square, is expected to join Valeant's 12-member board, two people familiar with the matter said.

The company is also expected to give a seat to Fredric Eshelman, a long-time pharma industry executive, as well as one other person, adding a total of three new directors, the sources said. The company was not immediately available to comment.

The move comes after a particularly rocky few weeks for Valeant when the company said it would restate its earnings, saw its chief executive return from a lengthy sick leave, postponed a scheduled earnings and acknowledged the country's top securities regulator is investigating the company.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Carl O'Donnell; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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