ICN Agrees to Buy 72% Stake in Russian Drug Company

COSTA MESA — ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., continuing its push to expand in Russia and Eastern Europe, said Wednesday it has agreed to buy 72% of Leksredstva, a Russian generic drug manufacturer, for $5.7 million in cash.

Leksredstva, based in Kursk, 400 miles south of Moscow, manufactures 20 generic drugs and various chemicals. The company had $12 million in revenue for the first six months of 1996, almost equaling its entire 1995 revenue of $13 million.

The sellers are unidentified financial institutions and employees. The transaction must be approved by Russia’s Anti-Monopoly Committee.

“The acquisition of Leksredstva is part of our long-term strategy to expand our operations into Russia and all of Eastern Europe,” Milan Panic, ICN’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. In May, ICN said it would invest $3 million in cash and equipment to convert a former Soviet germ warfare plant in Kazakhstan into a pharmaceuticals manufacturing facility.

ICN already owns 90% of St. Petersburg-based Oktyabr, Russia’s oldest drug company. It also operates Galenika, the largest drug company in Yugoslavia.

Last month, ICN won a bid to purchase up to 59% of Alkaloida Chemical Co., a Hungarian drug maker, for $21.9 million in cash. It also agreed to pay $22.7 million in stock for the radiation-monitoring unit of Germany’s Siemens AG.