SPI Pharmaceuticals Unit Taps Soviet Market

SPI Pharmaceuticals Inc., a small Costa Mesa drug company, said Monday that its Yugoslavian joint-venture company has received a $22-million order for pharmaceutical products from a Soviet trading company.

This is the largest order for Belgrade-based ICN Galenika since Costa Mesa-based SPI acquired 75% of Yugoslavia’s largest drug company, Galenika Pharmaceuticals, for $50 million in May. ICN Pharmaceuticals, also of Costa Mesa, owns 80% of SPI.

“The Soviet Union represents a substantial and growing market for pharmaceuticals for us,” said Jack Sholl, an SPI spokesman. The Soviet Union accounts for 20% of ICN Galenika’s exports, and sales to that market are expected to reach $45 million this year, he said.

Medexport, a state-owned trading company in Moscow, will pay for the products in U.S. dollars on delivery, Sholl said. The order includes several types of antibiotics, analgesics, anesthetics, skin-care products and multivitamins, which are destined for hospitals in the Russian republic.

Medexport, which supplies drug and medical equipment to Soviet medical and research facilities, has done business with Galenika for about 10 years.

Sholl said the recent violence between Serbia and the secessionist republic of Croatia has caused no disruption in production at the company’s plant in Belgrade.

SPI’s per-share price fell 50 cents to $19.125 in American Stock Exchange trading Monday.

SPI supplies diabetic products, analgesics, anti-depressants and anti-viral drugs for ICN Galenika to distribute in Yugoslavia. Financial results of SPI’s Yugoslavian venture will be included for the first time in the Costa Mesa company’s earnings report for the third quarter ended Aug. 31.