Can Den­dreon’s new Provenge da­ta help ig­nite a turn­around for the fad­ed can­cer star?

Two years ago, when Valeant bought Den­dreon and its prostate can­cer cell ther­a­py Provenge out of bank­rupt­cy for $400 mil­lion, ob­servers marked it as an­oth­er step down a long and bumpy spi­ral for a treat­ment that had once been cel­e­brat­ed as a his­toric break­through. Valeant was the sole bid­der and a bad match.

Then CEO J. Michael Pear­son called the ac­qui­si­tion an ef­fec­tive way to launch Valeant in­to the can­cer field — but Pear­son wasn’t head­ed any­where. A year lat­er, the CEO was out the door and Valeant was in ut­ter dis­ar­ray as its busi­ness mod­el of buy­ing drugs and jack­ing the price be­came a ra­dioac­tive source of con­tro­ver­sy.

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