Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals continue to dive after a seething report issued this month by investors betting against the company compared it to Enron and critics questioned its drug-pricing and other business practices.
Valeant is just the latest in a string of biotech companies and drug makers to face such high-profile attacks. Since the beginning of the year, investors who bet a stock will go down by selling borrowed shares have lodged 43 campaigns against dozens of health technology companies, according to Activist Shorts Research, or ASR.
As millionaire and billionaire investors take on drug companies — and each other — Americans who rely on the medications at the center of much of the controversy could wind up big winners. Many of these short sellers will not only enrich themselves, but they may also end up lowering drug prices for everyone.
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