ICN Shares Up on SARS Drug News
ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares soared Tuesday on news that one of the company’s experimental drugs is being used to treat severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, the mysterious respiratory illness from Asia.
ICN of Costa Mesa rose $1.59 to $10.50, a gain of 18% on the New York Stock Exchange. Despite the jump, ICN trades at one-third the price of its 52-week high of $31.73 last April. The firm said it was supplying an intravenous form of its antiviral drug ribavirin as a treatment for SARS. The intravenous medication is being studied in human trials to treat several viral diseases but is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
On Friday, the World Health Organization mentioned ribavirin as a possible treatment for SARS, which has killed 3% of the 1,800 people sickened by it. The health organization said the drug had been used in some SARS patients but that clinical tests were needed to establish its effectiveness.
An oral form of ribavirin is approved to treat hepatitis C and is sold by Schering-Plough Corp. under license from ICN spinoff Ribapharm Inc., also headquartered in Costa Mesa.
The oral drug is the chief source of income for both ICN and Ribapharm, producing royalties of $270 million in 2002. Riches from the drug were at the center of a bitter feud between the two companies that ended in January with the resignations of Ribapharm’s top executives.
ICN currently markets an inhaled version of ribavirin that has been approved for several viral diseases, including chicken pox and a respiratory infection in children. The inhaled form of the drug had sales of $17.3 million in 2002 and accounted for 4% of ICN’s product sales.
On Tuesday, ICN said it had supplied the intravenous form of the drug to physicians who requested it. ICN declined to say what price it charges for the intravenous ribavirin.
Although the company cannot promote the experimental drug because it does not have FDA approval, an ICN spokesman said the company is allowed to collect “reasonable fees” for the medication.
