Valeant leads pharma rebound; Platform Specialty off as CEO plans exit; energy names slide

By Paul Deckelman

New York, Oct. 23 – Things were looking up in the recently hard-hit pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sector on Friday.

After several sessions of being whipsawed around at lower levels on questions about its drug-pricing policies and its distribution channels, the holders of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.’s bonds finally caught a break on Friday as the beleaguered drug manufacturer’s badly oversold paper bounced off its Thursday closing levels to move higher across the board.

That helped to pull up some of the sector-peer credits that had also gotten beaten up over the past few sessions, including Endo International plc and this week’s new deal from Concordia Healthcare Corp.

The sector-wide rebound also extended to the convertibles market, where Horizon Pharma plc rebounded along with its common shares.

Bond traders said that Friday’s big loser in an otherwise mostly positive session was Platform Specialty Products Corp., whose notes slid in very active trading after the chemicals company announced plans for its chief executive officer to retire, although Daniel H. Leever will stay on board until a suitable successor is found.

A short-lived rise in world crude oil prices fizzled out on Friday and they were back on the downside, battering such oil and gas credits as Energy XXI (Bermuda) Ltd., Comstock Resources, Inc. and Seventy Seven Energy Inc. Sector bellwether California Resources Corp. was also lower.

Traders saw Avaya Inc.’s paper moving up for a second straight session.

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