SPI Pharmaceuticals Inc.: The Costa Mesa-based company,...

SPI Pharmaceuticals Inc.: The Costa Mesa-based company, flush with profits from last year’s Yugoslavian joint venture, reported Monday first-quarter net income of $7.7 million, a 131% rise from the previous year.

Quarterly profits, which amounted to 44 cents per share, were more than double last year’s first-quarter profits of $3.3 million, or 21 cents per share, the company announced.

SPI Pharmaceuticals also posted record first-quarter sales of $121 million, a nearly fourfold increase from 1991 first-quarter sales of $34 million.

The company attributed the strong financial showing largely to purchase of a 75% interest in ICN Galenika in May, 1991. The Belgrade pharmaceutical manufacturer accounted for $84 million in first-quarter sales.