Biovail founder sells stake

Eugene Melnyk, the founder of Biovail Corp., has sold "substantially all" of his holdings in the Toronto-areapharmaceutical company.

Melnyk has been one of Canada's best-known entrepreneurs, building Biovail into the country's biggest publicly traded drug manufacturer.

He left the company, which is based in Mississauga, Ont., several years ago and has often been at odds with its management and board of directors about Biovail's strategy.

Melnyk remains owner of the Ottawa Senators hockey team and is active in a number of private businesses, including Trimel BioPharma Holdings Inc.

According to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Melnyk sold about 9.6 million Biovail shares since Nov. 24.

For many years, Melnyk had been Biovail's largest individual shareholder.