Plenty of industry watchers didn’t expect to see embattled Valeant ($VRX) CEO J. Michael Pearson return to the helm after a two-month bout with severe pneumonia. And as it turns out, he almost didn’t. Chris Viehbacher
At one point, the company’s board--which talked with a slate of potential CEO replacements--was leaning toward ousting Pearson, The Wall Street Journal reports. And former Sanofi ($SNY) CEO Chris Viehbacher, interim Valeant CEO Howard Schiller, and former Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan, who also had served as chairman of Valeant subsidiary Bausch & Lomb, were on the short list to fill his shoes..
