Senate committee advances SCOTUS ethics bill after alleged justice misconduct

It wasn’t supposed to work out this way for Brent Saunders.

Four years ago, Saunders was the whiz kid of the pharmaceutical set. At 44, he had created a large pharmaceutical firm, then called Actavis, almost by force of will after engineering more than $100 billion in deals in a two-year span. Then he had swooped in to rescue Botox maker Allergan from the nefarious claws of Valeant Pharmaceuticals, an asset-stripping drug company loved by many on Wall Street but no one with a conscience.

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As CEO, he paired his dealmaking with a boyish charm and a willingness to take on big issues that made him seem like a potential spokesman for the whole industry.

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