ICN to Split into Three Companies

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Costa Mesa, CA) has announced that its board of directors has approved a plan to divide the company into three publicly traded companies, one to be based in Moscow and not traded in the United States. ICN would be the parent company and its chairman and CEO Milan Panic would also be chairman of the other two companies that will be created under the reorganization. Each company would have separate management teams and boards of directors under the plan.

One company, to be named Ribapharm Inc., would encompass ICN's research and development activities and be supported by royalties from ICN's antiviral drug ribavarin, which is sold by Schering-Plough Corp. (Madison, NJ) for treatment of Hepatitis C.. ICN has sought permission from U.S. regulators earlier in the day to make an initial public offering of Ribapharm common shares, with UBS Warburg as lead underwriter.

A second company, to be based in Moscow and called ICN International, would comprise ICN's operations in Eastern and Western Europe and the Pacific Basin. ICN intends to make an offering of that new company's common shares by late calendar year 2000 and intends to seek their listing on the Budapest stock exchange and secondarily on the London Stock Exchange.

The third and existing company, ICN Pharmaceuticals, will retain a majority interest in the two new companies in addition to its existing North and Latin America pharmaceutical operations.

For more information: ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., 3300 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Tel: 714-545-0100. Fax: 714-556-0131.

Edited by Laura DeFrancesco