SPI Pharmaceuticals Donates Vitamins to Bosnia-Herzegovina

COSTA MESA — SPI Pharmaceuticals Inc., a drug manufacturer founded by a Yugoslav immigrant, has donated more than 85,000 bottles of vitamins, valued at $750,000, to the war-torn area of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The humanitarian aid is being made through AmeriCares, an international relief agency in New Canaan, Conn.

The shipment--which includes 47 different vitamin supplements--is expected to arrive today in Bosnia, said SPI spokesman, Jack Sholl.

“It has been a long-standing practice for our company to donate pharmaceuticals for humanitarian purposes,” said SPI chairman and chief executive, Milan Panic, who immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s from Serbia, a Yugoslav republic. Costa Mesa-based SPI--a subsidiary of ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc.--also owns 75% interest in a Belgrade joint venture, ICN Galenika.

In the last six months, SPI said it has donated nearly $1 million worth of vitamins and pharmaceuticals to the Russian Federation and Ukraine through AmeriCares and the World Emergency Relief, a humanitarian group based in Carlsbad.