BRIEFLY / PHARMACEUTICALS : AHP Executives Exercise Stock Options

American Home Products Corp., which has been beset by legal and regulatory problems involving its diet drugs, said several executives exercised stock options earlier this year and sold shares for profits ranging from $1.4 million to $7.3 million. Madison, N.J.-based AHP is the subject of an FBI probe involving Redux, one of two weight-loss drugs that the company pulled from the market amid safety concerns. “These are routine transactions. The shares traded represent a fraction of the total shares held,” Doug Petkus, a spokesman from American Home, told Reuters. The insider shares were sold between January and May of 1999. The largest profit was made by Robert Blount, chief financial officer, who sold 186,668 shares at $58.22 a share. American Home Products closed down 50 cents at $39.56 on the NYSE.