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Valeant Pharmaceutical’s offices in Montreal.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press

Valeant Pharamaceuticals lnternational Inc. swung to a profit and more than doubled its revenue in the fourth quarter as it folded in last year's acquisition of contact lens maker Bausch + Lomb Holdings Inc.

Canada's largest publicly traded drug company said fourth-quarter net profit came in at $124-million or 36 cents per share, compared with a loss of $89.1-million or 29 cents in the year-earlier period.

Revenue reached $2.1-billion, up 109 per cent over $986.3-million a year earlier.

"We are particularly pleased with the outperformance of the Bausch + Lomb businesses, coupled with the fact that the Company returned to positive organic growth," said chairman and chief executive officer Michael Pearson.

"Valeant's focus on cash pay businesses, diversification, durable assets, key geographies, and lower risk R&D will continue to benefit our shareholders as we look forward to continuing our track record of outperformance in 2014."

The $124-million in net profit in the fourth quarter included restructuring, integration and other charges of $128-million, mostly related to the acquisition of Bausch + Lomb.

Excluding one-time items, adjusted net income on a cash earnings basis was $732-million or $2.15 per share, up 76 per cent from $379.6-million a year earlier.

Valeant – the global leader in the dermatology sector – reaffirmed its 2014 guidance along with fourth-quarter results on Thursday. It anticipates cash earnings of between $8.25 and $8.75, including the negative impact of currency fluctuations since the beginning of the year of about 10 cents per share.

The company is forecasting revenue of $8.2-billion to $8.6-billion in 2014.

Valeant bought Bausch + Lomb for $8.7-billion in August.

Mr. Pearson said last month that the goal is for Valeant to become one of the world's top five pharmaceutical companies by market capitalization by the end of 2016, mostly through acquisitions.

Major previous acquisitions include the $2.6-billion takeover in 2012 of skin-care giant Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Mr. Pearson said on a conference call for analysts Thursday there are currently about 50 companies that could make acquisition targets. Those include private firms, businesses around the world, not just in the United States, and also parts of larger companies that might come up for sale.

"We don't have a specific plan," he said.

"A lot of this is very opportunistic. We're in a number of discussions and we always have been and will continue to be and when opportunity we will move on it."

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