SEC Investigates Trading of ICN Stock During ’88

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating trading in the stock of ICN Biomedicals during 1988, the company confirmed Wednesday.

The Costa Mesa-based chemical research company said it received a request from the SEC in January asking that it voluntarily provide information about trading in the company’s stock. The inquiry also involves the trading of stock by an undisclosed company or individual in companies considering a merger or acquisition of ICN Biomedicals.

“This was a routine request for information made not only of ICN Biomedicals but of other companies unrelated to ICN Biomedicals that were the subjects of mergers or acquisitions,” said company spokesman Jack Sholl.

Sholl said neither the company nor any of its employees are being investigated.

“As far as we know and as far as we’re concerned, this appears to be a routine request for information,” he said.

The SEC refused to comment on the company’s disclosure, saying its policy is not to discuss investigations or inquiries.

ICN Biomedicals’ parent--ICN Pharmaceuticals--is the subject of a grand jury inquiry into its sale of the drug ribavirin. The company and some of its employees have been subpoenaed since late 1988. ICN had tried to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell ribavirin in the treatment of the AIDS virus.

The grand jury inquiry more than likely resulted from a House of Representatives hearing in 1987 into the company’s sale of ribavirin. During the hearing, allegations were made regarding “the results of certain clinical trials” and that “ICN unlawfully solicited sales of ribavirin for a use not approved by the FDA.”

The company has disputed the allegations.