Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. was too aggressive in raising prices,outgoing Chief Executive Officer Mike Pearson will tell U.S.senators on Wednesday at a committee hearing to examine the cost ofprescription drugs.

“It was a mistake to pursue, and in hindsight I regret pursuing,transactions where a central premise was a planned increase in theprices of the medicines,” Pearson said in prepared testimony for aSenate Special Committee on Aging hearing to be held Wednesday.“The company was too aggressive –- and I, as its leader, was tooaggressive –- in pursuing price increases on certaindrugs.”

Wednesday’s hearing is the latest in a series by the committeeprobing the price of prescription drugs in the U.S. and the actionsby drugmakers. Along with Pearson, the panel will hearfrom former Chief Financial Officer Howard Schiller and BillAckman, the investor whose Pershing Square Capital Management LP isone of Valeant’s biggest holders. Pershing has two seats onValeant’s board, and Ackman has been among the company’s biggestdefenders.

Pearson is leaving the drugmaker after months of turmoil, whichbegan with a controversy over the price increases of two cardiacdrugs by 525 percent and 212 percent. Since its August peak,Valeant has lost more than 85 percent of its stock market value,failed to file its annual report, said it is being investigated bythe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and said thatSchiller, who also sits on the company’s board, had engaged inimproper conduct that led to financial misstatements. On Monday,Valeant said Perrigo Co.’s former CEO Joseph Papawill take over as its CEO in early May.

Pearson defended the company’s broader conduct.

“Price increases in a small segment of our company haveovershadowed our activities,” he wrote, referring to about 1,800products he said Valeant makes and sells. The “narrow focus” on afew drugs whose price Valeant raised dramatically “has givenCongress and the public a misimpression that our strategic focusrevolved around acquiring older, off-patent drugs, which in factwas not the case,” he said.

Of more than 250 brand-name drugs surveyed at several companies,only prices for 10 Valeant products rose at double-digit rates ineach of the first three quarters of 2015, according to a BloombergIntelligence analysis.

The committee’s hearing is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. inWashington.

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