Subject: Panic, the Chairman Of ICN, Is Named Yugoslavia's Leader
Date: Published: 7/3/92 (76 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Panic, the Chairman
    Of ICN, Is Named
    Yugoslavia's Leader
    ---
    Drug Executive, Who's Known
    For Troubles With FDA,
    Emigrated to U. S. in 1956
    ----
    By Rhonda L. Rundle
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    Milan Panic, a Serbian emigre with a turbulent past as
 head of California drug maker ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc.,
 accepted an offer to become prime minister of a shrunken
 Yugoslavia.
    "I am deeply honored that the president of Yugoslavia,
 Dobrica Cosic, has placed his trust in me to undertake this
 great task," Mr. Panic told reporters in Washington, saying
 he was leaving for Belgrade to oversee formation of a new
 government.
    Yugoslavia is now made up of the republics of Serbia and
 Montenegro.  But Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, blamed
 by Western governments for instigating attacks on Croatia and
 Bosnia-Herzegovina, is the most powerful figure and holds
 sway over the Yugoslav government.  Mr. Panic usually meets
 with Mr. Milosevic when he visits Belgrade, associates of Mr. 
 Panic in Serbia say.
    Mr. Panic, 62 years old, is chairman, president and chief
 executive officer of ICN, which he co-founded in 1960, four
 years after arriving in the U. S. Last year, ICN had a profit
 of $5.6 million on sales of $460 million.  An ICN subsidiary
 holds a 75% stake in ICN Galenika, a Yugoslav drug maker.
    During his career at ICN, Mr. Panic (pronounced PAHN-ish)
 has tangled with regulators, shareholders, auditors and
 scientists.  His tactics to promote ICN's drugs and its stock
 have gotten him into trouble with the U. S. Food and Drug
 Administration and with the Securities and Exchange
 Commission.
    In the 1980s, Mr. Panic drew rebukes from the FDA for his
 exaggerated claims on behalf of an antiviral drug called
 Virazole.  Despite efforts to get U. S. approval to sell the
 drug for treatment of a long list of diseases, including
 AIDS, Virazole is approved only in aerosol form against a
 lung ailment in infants.  The drug is widely sold overseas for
 various conditions.
    Mr. Panic has sought out political contacts and helped
 raise funds for the Democratic party.  Former California Gov. 
 Jerry Brown was criticized in his campaign for the Democratic
 presidential nomination earlier this year because of ties to
 ICN Biomedicals Inc., an ICN unit that is a large disposer of
 radioactive waste.  Mr. Brown resigned as a director of the
 unit in December.
    A spokesman for ICN and its three publicly traded units in
 Costa Mesa, Calif., said Mr. Panic retains all his corporate
 titles.  "He is right now prime minister-designate."  There is
 an "orderly succession plan" that will go into effect "if Mr. 
 Panic is formally sworn into office."  The executive owns
 about 8% of the parent company's stock.
    Mr. Panic was born in Belgrade and joined the Yugoslav
 resistance during the Nazi occupation in World War II,
 according to his official biography.  The chemist and
 bicycling champion emigrated to the U. S. in 1956 and became a
 U. S. citizen in 1963.  A spokesman for Mr. Panic said he
 didn't know if he could accept the Yugoslav ministerial post
 without renouncing his U. S. citizenship.
    ---
    Roger Thurow contributed to this article.

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