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Officials from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. are set to tell a Senate committee Wednesday that they are steering the company away from its practice of aggressively increasing drug prices, as senators prepared to criticize Valeant for the impact of company's practices on patients.

The company has learned "painful lessons" over the past year, since it came under fire for huge price increases it imposed on cardiac-care drugs Isoprel and Nitropress, according to testimony by Valeant Chief Executive Michael Pearson prepared for delivery Wednesday afternoon to the Senate Special Committee on Aging. The company is rethinking its aggressive approach to pricing, according to his remarks, in which he insists that Valeant was concerned about patients and not just making money.

"I believe that Valeant employees at every level always took seriously our mission to ensure patients' access to the drugs that their doctors prescribed for them," Mr. Pearson said in his prepared testimony. "And we still do."

William Ackman, whose hedge-fund firm owns a 9% stake in Valeant and recently joined the company's board, said in prepared testimony that he is "committed to ensuring that this approach to drug pricing is never repeated at Valeant." The company "has made some significant mistakes and has suffered great reputational damage as a result," Mr. Ackman said, but he and other directors "have worked aggressively to stabilize the company."

Committee Chairman Sen. Susan Collins, R-Me., said in her prepared statement that Valeant's "enormous and unwarranted price hikes have had far-ranging and severe impacts on patients, hospitals and our health care system."

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., the committee's ranking minority member, said the price-boosting business model of Valeant and other drug companies "benefits multimillionaires" on the backs of patients who find themselves unable to afford the medications they need. "It's using patients as hostages. It's immoral. It hurts real people," Ms. McCaskill said in her prepared statement.

The Senate committee has been investigating dramatic increases in drug prices imposed by Valeant and other companies, including those headed by former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli. Ms. Collins said the investigation is "intended to produce policy reforms," such as legislation she and Ms. McCaskill have introduced to fast-track approval of certain generic drugs that would compete with drugs that are vulnerable to sharp price increases.

Valeant was a market darling for years over its strategy, led by Mr. Pearson, of profiting by acquiring other drug companies and boosting the drugs' prices, rather than by relying on its own internal research to develop new drugs. But questions over the company's pricing, accounting and business practices arose beginning last year, and Valeant stock has plunged more than 85% from its high last August. Mr. Pearson is departing the company, to be replaced as CEO by Perrigo Co. CEO Joseph Papa.

Mr. Pearson said in his prepared testimony that along with the company's big price increases, it also provides a variety of patient-assistance to help patients pay for drugs. He added that while his public comments have typically come in the context of discussions about shareholders' interests, "I regret that my public focus on shareholders left the seriously inaccurate impression that Valeant did not consider the impact of our decisions on patients. We absolutely did, and we still do."

Write to Michael Rapoport at Michael.Rapoport@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2016 17:25 ET (21:25 GMT)

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