Eugene Melnyk Eugene MelnykSean Kilpatrick
The founder of Biovail Corp. , Eugene Melnyk, has sold "substantially all" of his holdings in the Toronto-area pharmaceutical company.
According to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Melnyk sold about 9.6 million Biovail shares since Nov. 24.
At current market prices, the shares would have been worth about $157.8-million, although Mr. Melnyk didn't announce how much he actually received.
The stock was trading above $16 a share at the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday but was worth about $15 a share on Nov. 24, when the selling began.
Mr. Melnyk has been one of Canada's best-known entrepreneurs, building Biovail into the country's biggest publicly traded drug manufacturer.
He left the Mississauga-based company several years ago and has been often at odds with its management and board of directors about Biovail's strategy.
Mr. Melnyk remains owner of the Ottawa Senators hockey team and is active in a number of private businesses, including Trimel BioPharma Holdings Inc.
For many years, Mr. Melnyk had been Biovail's largest individual shareholder.