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Suits Against ICN to Be Tried in N.Y.

By MARIA L. La GANGA
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Several class-action shareholder lawsuits filed in Southland courts against ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. will be tried in New York to consolidate court action against the embattled Costa Mesa company.

The suits allege that ICN and its Viratek Inc. subsidiary wrongly “hyped” the value of the experimental antiviral drug “Virazole” and accuse ICN, Viratek and a second subsidiary, SPI Pharmaceutical Inc., as well as PaineWebber Inc. and eight ICN officers and directors of securities fraud.

U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. on Monday granted the change of venue at the request of the defendants. According to an attorney for ICN, the motion sought the change of venue because “essentially the same litigation is pending and is further advanced” in the U.S. District Court in New York.

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Attorneys for the shareholders could not be reached for comment.

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Maria L. La Ganga

Maria L. La Ganga is the deputy managing editor for California and Metro, overseeing the Los Angeles Times’ largest editorial department. She joined The Times in 1981 as an academic intern, splitting her time between the former Metro section and National Dragster, the official publication of the National Hot Rod Assn. She has served as Seattle bureau chief, San Francisco bureau chief, edited in the Business section and pitched in on six presidential elections, five for The Times and one for the Guardian. La Ganga left The Times in 2015 and returned in 2018 after a brief hiatus during which she wrote for the Guardian and the Idaho Statesman. She was named city editor in 2022 and promoted to her current role in 2024. La Ganga graduated from Granada Hills High School in the San Fernando Valley and Cal State Northridge, where she studied English literature and journalism.

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