A hedge fund that has long been bearish on Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. published a new list of pharmacies it said were probably tied to the drugmaker, briefly sending Valeant shares down Wednesday.

Valeant’s relationship with so-called specialty pharmacies has come under scrutiny by investors, lawmakers and regulators. The 78 pharmacies identified in a blog post by Sydney-based Bronte Capital have names that allude to chess moves or to Stephen King novels. The hedge fund has a short-selling position against Valeant that would let it profit on the stock’s decline, Chief Investment Officer John Hempton said in an e-mail.

Valeant shares rose 1.1 percent to $88.45 at 11:05 a.m. in New York, after earlier falling as much as 5.1 percent after Bronte’s blog post.

The drugmaker has drawn scrutiny for its relationships with mail-order pharmacies such as Philidor Rx Services that specialized in helping doctors and patients get access to Valeant drugs even when insurers declined to cover them. Valeant said last month it would cut ties with Philidor after Bloomberg News reported, citing former employees, that Philidor workers changed the coding on prescriptions so they could be filled with brand-name drugs instead of generics. Philidor has said it only filled prescriptions with the drugs doctors and patients preferred.

The people on registration documents for the pharmacies on Bronte Capital’s list are employed by Valeant, the hedge fund said, without providing details.

A call and e-mail Wednesday seeking comments from Valeant representatives weren’t immediately returned.