Bill Ackman's favorite pharmaceutical company may be about to lose another huge acquisition

Pharmaceutical firm Endo is putting in a bid for Salix, the company that was in talks to be acquired by Valeant, CNBC reported.

Endo is said to offer between $170 and $175 per share for the company.

This comes just as it seemed a deal between Salix and Valeant was almost done. Last month, Valeant secured financing to make a bid for Salix at above or around $150 a share.

Last year, Valeant, a Canadian pharmaceutical firm headed by Michael Pearson, teamed up with hedge fund manager Bill Ackman to purchase Allergan.

Allergan ultimately slipped through Valeant's fingers, finding a white knight in Actavis in a $66 billion deal. Ackman, who had a stake in Allergan but not Valeant, had a nice pay day anyway.

Throughout this process, Valeant continuously to fended off accusations that it has no organic growth, and relies on acquisitions and aggressive accounting to seem profitable. Those acquisitions weren't coming from just anywhere either - the main bear in the Valeant case has been and is famed short-seller Jim Chanos.

Reuters reported this week that Ackman had purchased $3.3 billion worth of Valeant's stock. According to Reuters, Ackman has a 5% passive stake in the Canadian pharmaceutical company. He was not allowed to own any Valeant as long as he and Valeant were pursuing Allergan.

Valeant's stock price is down 3.5% on the news: