Subject: ICN Pharmaceuticals Will Pay $600,000 To Settle Drug Case
Date: Published: 5/28/91 (45 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    ICN Pharmaceuticals
    Will Pay $600,000
    To Settle Drug Case

    COSTA MESA, Calif.  -- ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. agreed to
 pay $600,000 as part of a civil settlement of a long-running
 dispute with the Department of Justice regarding the
 company's antiviral drug Virazole.
    The Justice Department inquiry, which began in 1988,
 focused on whether the company distributed Virazole to six
 physicians as a treatment for patients infected by the virus
 that causes AIDS.  Virazole hadn't been approved by the Food
 and Drug Administration for AIDS treatment, although it was
 authorized as a treatment for a certain type of respiratory
 virus.
    The pharmaceuticals company, which didn't admit or deny
 guilt, agreed to comply with Food and Drug Administration
 laws and regulations.  Of the total monetary payment, $200,000
 will be used to reimburse the FDA for administrative costs
 linked to the dispute.
    "We are pleased that these actions will bring this matter
 to a conclusion, and to once and for all put allegations of
 criminal wrongdoing to rest," Milan Panic, ICN's chairman,
 said in a statement.  ICN said it settled to avoid more
 litigation costs.
    The dispute stemmed from a House subcommittee
 investigation in 1987 that reviewed a broad range of issues
 related to testing and marketing of Virazole.  David C. Watt,
 ICN's general counsel, said the settlement wraps up all
 issues considered by a grand jury that was convened in the
 wake of subcommittee hearings.
    Although the settlement concludes ICN's dispute with the
 FDA, the company still is involved in settlement talks in a
 separate case with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  In
 that matter, the SEC examined evidence to determine, among
 other things, whether the company made false or misleading
 disclosures about Virazole's effectiveness against AIDS.  

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