This Valeant Chart Looks Great (Just Don't Try to Measure It)

(Bloomberg) -- Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. told investors Wednesday that new products will be a key part of the drugmaker’s turnaround strategy. Just don’t ask for too many details on the numbers.

A slide labeled “Return to Growth” lays out colorful bars representing the company’s sales expectations. This year represents a nadir, and in coming years, a smooth ascent is projected. The Valeant’s base business will grow, and “new products” -- currently a small proportion of its overall revenue -- will make up roughly a third of sales.

Missing from the slide are any dollar or percentage labels.

“Before you get your micrometers out to try to infer more than we’re actually trying to say on this slide, the information is not to scale and is simply meant to illustrate the ramp and certain components of revenue through 2021, with 2018 being our trough year,” Chief Financial Officer Paul Herendeen said on the company’s conference call Wednesday.

A footnote to the slide, part of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings presentation, notes that it’s “for illustrative revenue assumption purposes only.”

The shares were down 9.6 percent to $16.72 at 9:41 a.m. in New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Drew Armstrong in New York at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, Timothy Annett

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