Icn Pharmaceuticals Inc

The bitter feud between Ribapharm Inc. and its majority owner, ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., escalated with the smaller firm accusing ICN of defrauding the company and the public with its purported plan to spin off Ribapharm. Ribapharm formerly was wholly owned by ICN, and both drug companies share headquarters space in Costa Mesa. In April, ICN sold 20% of Ribapharm to the public and said it planned to spin off its remaining 80% stake.

Roche Holding settled a dispute with ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Ribapharm Inc. over patents for the hepatitis C drug ribavirin, which the Swiss drug maker uses with one of its products. The companies will stop all legal action over ribavirin, and Roche will license the drug from Ribapharm, the Swiss drug maker said. Roche will continue to register and market its own version of ribavirin, called Copegus, worldwide. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Last April 12, Dr. Johnson Y.N. Lau had every reason to beam as he rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. At age 41, Lau was basking in the latest achievement of his already accomplished career as a medical scientist and researcher. Shares of his new drug company, Ribapharm Inc., had just finished their first day of trading on the Big Board, and the small firm's future looked bright. Only nine months later, Costa Mesa-based Ribapharm is in turmoil.

Ribapharm Inc. will have to pay three executives about $4.6 million in severance if they carry out a threat to quit over majority shareholder ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s plan to replace all but one of Ribapharm's directors. Ribapharm also may owe the directors extra payments to cover taxes, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Chief Executive Johnson Y.N.

Escalating the bitter battle for control of Ribapharm Inc., the drug maker's top management threatened to quit Monday in protest over majority shareholder ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s plan to fire most of Ribapharm's board of directors. Ribapharm said its chief executive, Dr. Johnson Y.N. Lau, along with Chief Financial Officer Thomas Stankovich and general counsel Roger Loomis, would resign unless ICN backs off its plan to remove five of Ribapharm's six board members.

Biotechnology company Ribapharm Inc. lashed back against parent company ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. as the two waged a war of words over a proposed spinoff. ICN, which owns 80% of Ribapharm, obtained a temporary restraining order Tuesday from the Delaware Chancery Court restricting the board of Ribapharm from taking actions outside the "ordinary course of business" pending ICN's removal of five of six Ribapharm directors.

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., escalating its battle with a rebel spinoff company, said Tuesday that it obtained a court order preventing Ribapharm Inc. from making any major business decisions while ICN seeks to shake up Ribapharm's board. ICN, which owns 80% of Ribapharm, said it obtained the temporary restraining order from a Delaware Chancery Court.

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Costa Mesa on Monday agreed to pay $1 million and accepted an unusual federal review of its drug-related news releases to settle a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission charging that it misled investors about its hepatitis C drug ribavirin. Company founder and ex-Chief Executive Milan Panic, a former prime minister of Yugoslavia, also agreed to pay $500,000 to settle similar charges against him.

Investors boosted ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s shares by 30% Thursday after the Costa Mesa company announced a new management team, a restructuring plan and better-than-expected earnings. The company said Robert O'Leary, who had been serving as interim chief executive, will take the position permanently. ICN also named Timothy Tyson, an executive at British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, as president and chief operating officer, and Bary G.

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it paid $12 million in severance to company founder Milan Panic, who resigned as chairman and chief executive in June after years of battling shareholders and regulators. Panic remains a director of the company, which makes the hepatitis drug ribavirin. Costa Mesa-based ICN disclosed the payment in a regulatory filing.