Reiterating the strength of its M&A-heavy strategy, Valeant CEO Michael Pearson touted the company's deal record during its second quarter earnings call.

The "troubling" trends in the rising costs to US consumers of prescription drugs, including generics, is a big yellow warning sign the biopharmaceutical market is out of balance, largely due to a lack of transparency in how medicines are priced, insisted Dr Stephen Schondelmeyer, a professor of pharmaceutical management and economics and director of the PRIME Institute at the University of Minnesota.

Following through on its pledge to make subgroup data, like sex, race and age, more transparent and available to the public, the FDA on 21 November launched a new website, dubbed Drug Trials Snapshot, intended to provide information about who was in the clinical trials and whether various demographic groups were part of the consideration of safety and efficacy in applications submitted to the agency.

Valeant has something to prove with the launch of Jublia, a topical treatment for toenail fungus, which it has held up as an example of its R&D strategy at work.