Valeant’s Novel Business Approach Made It Wall Street's Darling—Then A Pariah

Toward the end of 2014, Russell Reitz, a genial Southern California pharmacist and serial entrepreneur, decided it was time to sell his latest business. Reitz, in his 60s, had, during his 30-year career, collected a doctorate, several patents, and a respectable fortune. He’d started his newest venture, R&O Pharmacy, a few years before with his friend and business partner Robert Osbakken, leasing space in a low-rise office park about an hour northwest of Los Angeles. But then Osbakken was diagnosed with cancer and grew too sick to work. Reitz didn’t want to go it alone.