ICN Forecasts $400-Million Cash Flow

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. expects cash flow to rise to almost $400 million this year from more than $300 million in 2000 on rising sales of its ribavirin hepatitis drug, Chairman Milan Panic told investors. Still, Panic noted sales of ribavirin, its biggest product, slowed in the fourth quarter as some doctors refrained from prescribing the drug to new patients and waited to see whether ICN’s partner Schering-Plough Corp. can win approval for an improved treatment. Costa Mesa-based ICN also said it filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration for approval to begin human tests on levovirin, its next-generation version of ribavirin. Preclinical research on levovirin has shown the drug has promise because it could have fewer side effects than ribavirin, such as birth defects, analysts say. “The company is truly cash-rich and will use that for research and development,” Panic told investors at the J.P. Morgan H&Q; health-care conference in San Francisco. ICN shares rose 88 cents to close at $26.63 on the New York Stock Exchange.