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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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