Irvine Defibrillator Firm’s Engineering Operations Halted

Cardiac Science Inc., which has become known more for its role in the recent ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. imbroglio than for its automatic heart defibrillator, said Friday that it has shut down engineering operations but will continue to be operated by its president.

The Irvine research and development company, which has no revenue and lost $1.1 million for the first nine months last year, is struggling to find investors even as it seeks federal approval to continue testing its defibrillator.

Howard K. Cooper, the company’s president, acknowledged that Cardiac Science is out of cash and will need $5 million to get through the second phase of testing of the device, which delivers an electrical jolt automatically when it senses the onset of cardiac arrest. It completed the first phase in December, he said.

Cooper will continue as the only employee “with the possible part-time assistance of one or two administrative employees,” according to a press release. Pay for those employees will be deferred.

The company, spun off from Cytocare Inc. in Irvine in 1991, wanted to begin selling stock to the public last fall through broker Rafi Khan’s company, but that deal was aborted when Khan split with the brokerage. Khan is the dissident ICN shareholder who recently lost a long-waged bid to unseat ICN Chairman Milan Panic. Khan had Cooper on his proposed slate of new ICN directors.