ICN Chairman Asks Clinton for Help

Milan Panic, chairman of ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., appealed to President Clinton on Friday to condemn the “wholly illegal” seizing of the company’s Belgrade factory by the Yugoslavian government. In an open letter published in the New York Times, Panic claimed the government had no right to seize the plant, and he urged Clinton to demand that the factory be returned to the 11313775246, accusing ICN of not abiding by its 1991 purchase agreement. “There can be no doubt that this was an economic and politically motivated power play intended to foment anti-American sentiment on the eve of the Kosovo peace talks in France,” Panic wrote. Serbs and ethnic Albanians, who are the majority in Kosovo and want independence for the Yugoslav province, have been meeting for six days in Rambouillet, France in an attempt to hammer out a peace agreement that would end the fighting between the two sides. The Yugoslav Federal Ministry of Health said the factory was seized because ICN, under the 1991 purchase agreement, was obliged to transfer $220 million in drug patents to its Yugoslav subsidiary, known formerly as Galenika, and invest $50 million in cash. The Belgrade government said ICN had paid only the cash and not the $220 million in patents. ICN said it’s made all the required investments. Panic wrote that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s government seized the factory “to avoid its contractual obligations aggregating more than $175 million.” James Rubin, State Department spokesman, said Monday the U.S. “strongly condemns” the takeover of the factory. ICN’s stock closed Friday at $23.31 a share, off 50 cents.