Newport Pharmaceuticals Settles Suits: Newport Pharmaceuticals International...

Newport Pharmaceuticals Settles Suits: Newport Pharmaceuticals International Inc., the Laguna Hills health-care company, said Tuesday that the federal District Court in Los Angeles had approved the settlement of two related securities class-action suits brought against it in 1986. The company will pay $1.875 million, plus interest payments of $952,000. Of these amounts, $1.25 million will be paid in cash and the rest will come in the form of shares of the company’s common stock. The suits alleged that the company misled investors by promoting a drug as a possible treatment for the symptoms of AIDS in its early stages. In settling the suits, Newport Pharmaceuticals neither denies nor admits any wrongdoing.