SPI More Than Doubles Profits for 3rd Quarter

Buoyed by the success of its new Eastern Europe joint venture, SPI Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Wednesday that its third-quarter profits more than doubled to $8.7 million, up from $3.4 million for the same quarter last year.

The company earned 52 cents per share on sales of $96.8 million, contrasted with earnings of 22 cents per share on sales of $31.4 million for the third quarter of 1990.

SPI stock, which is traded on the American Stock Exchange, rose 37 cents Wednesday to close at $18.75.

The strong results were in large part because of the performance of ICN Galenika, a joint venture with a Yugoslav drug maker that began in May. SPI owns 75% of ICN Galenika.

For the first nine months of 1991, ICN Galenika accounted for $87 million of SPI’s total sales of $182 million, the company said. The subsidiary introduced the SPI anti-epilepsy drug Mazepine, its brand name for carbamazepine, into the Yugoslav market and increased exports to the Soviet republics, the company said.

Excluding international operations, however, the sales results for SPI’s core business (which includes sales of the anti-viral drug Virazole, its brand name for ribavirin), were $95 million, compared to $97 million for the first nine months of 1990. Net income for the nine-month period rose 65%, to $17 million, or $1.07 a share, from $10.2 million, or 65 cents a share in 1990.

SPI also announced that its major shareholder, ICN Pharmaceuticals, reduced its stake in the company during the third quarter. ICN had owned 82% of SPI stock, but it sold 823,000 shares, decreasing its ownership to 75%.

On Monday, ICN settled a Securities and Exchange Commission suit alleging that ICN and a subsidiary, Viratek Inc., misled the public about the effectiveness of Virazole in fighting the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome. ICN admitted no wrongdoing and was not penalized, but the company agreed not to violate securities laws in the future.