ICN Pharmaceuticals Posts $22.4-Million Loss

Despite sharply higher sales, ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday that it lost $22.4 million last year, blaming most of the deficit on unfavorable foreign currency rates that increased the company’s foreign debt.

The loss, however, marked an improvement over a year ago when the Costa Mesa-based drug company posted a loss of $82 million.

ICN’s sales for its fiscal year ended Nov. 30 rose 47% to $272 million from $185 million the previous year.

Each of the company’s three subsidiaries--SPI Pharmaceuticals, ICN Biomedicals and Viratek--operated profitably in 1990. ICN said the three units recorded combined net income of $25 million last year.

However, the parent company said it finished 1990 in the red primarily because its foreign public debt--most of which is in Swiss francs and Dutch guilders--grew in response to the declining value of the U.S. dollar, resulting in a $14-million charge to earnings.

The Costa Mesa firm attributed $6.9 million of its 1990 loss to higher taxes in foreign countries.

The company, however, reported operating income of $42 million for 1990, up from $24 million in 1989.

For the fourth quarter, ICN lost $9 million contrasted with a loss of $85.7 million in the same period a year earlier. Sales increased to $75.5 million from $55.9 a year earlier.

ICN’s huge fourth-quarter and yearly loss in 1989 was due in large part to a $71-million writedown in the fourth quarter resulting from the company’s decision to cease its efforts to obtain approval in the United States to market its drug ribavirin as a treatment for the AIDS virus.

ICN said its revenue gain last year was helped by an 18% increase in international sales. The company said U.S. sales of its anti-viral drug Virazole, used to treat children with severe respiratory tract infections, doubled from the previous year.

ICN stock closed Monday at $5 a share, up 25 cents in New York Stock Exchange trading. The earnings announcement was made after the market closed.

Schroeder Boulton, first vice president of Tucker Anthony, a New York brokerage, said ICN’s financial results were a little better than expected. “Their operating margins are improving, and I think they will have black figures for this year as a whole,” he predicted.

Boulton said that although ICN abandoned efforts to market ribavirin in the United States for use in treating AIDS patients, he expects that a number of foreign countries will approve the drug for that purpose in 1991. Last year, Ireland became the first country to grant such approval. He predicted that this trend and the increased use of the drug for treating other viruses will boost sales substantially.

Boulton commended ICN’s efforts to retire its bond debt, of which 40% is in international currencies. The company said that during 1990 it repurchased $14.8 million in debt, leaving total debt of $174.6 million outstanding as of Nov. 30. ICN PHARMACEUTICALS’ PERFORMANCE

For its fiscal year ended Nov. 30, ICN Pharmaceuticals lost $22.4 million on sales that were 47% higher than the year before. The company attributed the loss primarily to overseas debt payments, which it said were exacerbated by unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates.

Figures are in thousands, except per-share data.

4th Qtr 4th Qtr 12 Months 12 Months 1990 1989 1990 1989 Revenue $75,459 $55,881 $271,975 $185,489 Net income (loss) (8,960) (85,713) (22,445) (81,961) Per share (loss) ($.77) ($7.02) ($1.92) ($6.01)

Source: ICN Pharmaceuticals