ICN Retains Goldman to Fully Review Finances

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for financial advice two weeks after it said second-quarter earnings were more than 50% below forecasts.

Shares of the Costa Mesa-based drug maker fell 77 cents, or 8.3%, to $8.49 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

The stock, which is down 75% so far this year, reached a seven-year low of $8.25 earlier in the day.

ICN makes the hepatitis drug ribavirin, as well as antibiotics, sedatives and vitamins.

“Goldman Sachs has been hired to do a full review” of the company’s finances, said Alan Charles, ICN’s executive vice president for investor relations.

He said ICN is not for sale and declined to comment further until his company makes a formal announcement about hiring the investment bank.

Goldman Sachs spokeswoman Andrea Rachman declined to comment.

ICN shares plunged 52%, their steepest drop, on July 11 after Chief Executive Robert O’Leary said quarterly profit would come in well below analysts’ forecasts because of bloated product inventories at several distributors.

O’Leary became CEO and chairman of ICN last month after founder and Chairman Milan Panic lost a proxy fight with dissident shareholders. O’Leary was one of three new directors elected to the board.

In December, ICN agreed to plead guilty to a criminal securities fraud charge and pay a $5.6-million penalty for waiting four months in 1994 to tell investors that the Food and Drug Administration had determined that doctors wouldn’t be able to use ribavirin alone to treat liver disease.