$183.6-Million Loss Posted by ICN Pharmaceuticals : Earnings: Consolidation charges more than offset an increase in Costa Mesa firm’s operating profits for 1994.

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., embroiled in controversy over the future of its chairman and its anti-viral drug Virazole, said Tuesday that onetime charges for consolidating its subsidiaries in November caused it to lose $183.6 million last year.

The anticipated loss, amounting to $8.38 a share, was in line with industry analysts’ expectations. But a $221-million write-down taken by the company for acquisition costs related to the merger was about $35 million more than anticipated.

Still, ICN’s stock, which had lost 42% of its value in the last 11 days, rebounded slightly. It gained $1.25 to close at $14.50 a share Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

In releasing its annual earnings, the Costa Mesa-based drug maker still refused to talk about the latest problems facing the company and its chairman, Milan Panic.

Panic sold $1.24 million worth of his ICN stock more than two months before disclosing publicly on Feb. 17 that federal regulators weren’t going to approve ICN’s drug Virazole for treating the contagious liver disease hepatitis C.

Instead, the company focused Tuesday on its improved operating results. Excluding the merger costs, the company would have generated annual earnings of $37.4 million, or $1.71 per share. It earned $21.5 million, or $1.05 per share, in 1993.

The company said its “excellent operating performance” was a result mainly of more stable conditions in Yugoslavia, where ICN operates a 75%-owned subsidiary called ICN Galenika. Domestic sales also improved, the company said.

Nevertheless, sales overall fell 9% to $366.9 million last year from $404 million the previous year. For the fourth quarter, ICN lost $207.3 million, or $8.39 a share, compared with a profit of $7.8 million, or 37 cents a share, for the previous year’s final quarter. Sales for the quarter slid 17% to $123 million from $147.7 million.

“The company is on track,” one analyst said. “Its earnings have been consistent and should grow this year. Also, it has improved its operating efficiencies by reducing costs.”

Sales of Virazole, which the company calls its flagship drug, totaled $46.4 million last year, a 57% increase over $29.5 million in sales the previous year. The company also makes and distributes a number of other prescription drugs and expects to have a penicillin factory in operation by October.

Virazole, which is approved in the United States for treating a rare children’s respiratory ailment, is used in 42 other countries to treat up to eight diseases, and is used against the AIDS virus.

It is Virazole, one of the few drugs that has some impact on viruses, that Panic has promoted as a treatment for numerous diseases. His efforts in the 1980s to win approval of Virazole as a drug to delay the onslaught of AIDS in HIV-positive patients ended in criminal and civil investigations of the company and a $600,000 ICN payment to settle the matters. The company did not admit any wrongdoing in settling the cases.

In late November, Panic sold 55,000 shares for $1.24 million after receiving a letter from the Food and Drug Administration indicating that Virazole would not be approved for treating hepatitis C. He resubmitted data to the FDA for reconsideration and was rebuffed again.

Since news of the FDA’s letters was made public Feb. 17, shareholders have filed five lawsuits against ICN and Panic, and at least three directors reportedly have quit.

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ICN Reports Loss

In the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported a net loss of $183.6 million and a per-share decline of $8.38. Figures in millions of dollars, except per-share data:

4th qtr. 4th qtr. 12 months 12 months 1993 1994 1993 1994 Revenue $147.7 $123.0 $404.0 $366.9 Net income (loss) 7.8 (207.3) 21.5 (183.6) Per share (loss) 0.37 (8.39) 1.05 (8.38)

Source: ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times