ICN Adds Two Directors After Death of Another

Costa Mesa drug maker ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Thursday that longtime director Richard W. Starr has died and that it has added to its board the chairman and a director of Occidental Petroleum Co.

Starr, a director for more than 17 years, died Jan. 29. ICN did not disclose any details. In October, director Michael Smith also died.

ICN said in a press release that Ray R. Irani, Occidental’s chairman and chief executive, and Rosemary Tomich, an Occidental director, joined ICN’s board. But company spokesman Peter Murphy refused to say whether either was appointed to replace Starr.

The company said it now has 14 board members, one more than it listed in its proxy statement to shareholders in November. Last fall, the company had reached an agreement with a dissident shareholder to reduce the number of directors to nine by next year.

The board has undergone a number of changes, mostly in the past few months.

In November, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell joined the board nearly three weeks after activist shareholder David Batchelder resigned as part of an agreement between ICN and other dissident shareholders.

Under pressure, ICN has agreed to split into three independent businesses: Ribapharm Inc., ICN Americas and ICN International. Ribapharm would own the rights to ribavirin, ICN’s top-selling hepatitis C drug.

If the company “has not made sufficient progress in executing its strategy,” ICN has said, Batchelder’s Relational Investors LLC can still appoint one independent director at an as-yet unscheduled ICN annual meeting in May.

In August, director Weldon Jolley retired from the board.

ICN shares closed Thursday at $26.41, up 67 cents in New York Stock Exchange trading. Company shares have lost nearly 14% of their value since the beginning of the year.