Proxy battle brewing over Biovail

Eugene Melnyk (photo [1]) said he'd do it [2], and now he has. The founder of Canada's Biovail launched a proxy battle for the company, looking to sweep out its board and senior management. Melnyk has a dissident group of shareholders backing him; in a proxy circular distributed by the group, Melnyk claims that Biovail is a "broken company in desperate need of change." They say they would hire a former chief, Bruce Brydon, as CEO and install "industry leaders" as board members. Melnyk himself would not serve.

This is just the latest in a series of tumultuous--some might say unfortunate--events at Biovail, which has faced litigation and regulatory problems over the past five years. Melnyk ran afoul [3] of securities regulators, along with three other current and former execs. The company paid $138 million last year to settle a class-action suit. And recently, Biovail agreed to pay almost $25 million [4]to settle corruption and conspiracy charges stemming from a product launch when Melnyk ran the company.

- read the Financial Times story [5]
- see Biovail's response [6] in BusinessWeek

Related Articles:
Biovail to pay $25M in doc payoff claims [4]
Biovail picks Wells as CEO [7]
Biovail stock craters on SEC charges [3]
Melnyk slams Biovail board, calls for change [2]
Biovail drug launch draws feds' scrutiny [8]
Biovail's Melnyk to step down amid SEC probe [9]