ICN Pays $12 Million in Severance to Milan Panic

ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it paid $12 million in severance to company founder Milan Panic, who resigned as chairman and chief executive in June after years of battling shareholders and regulators.

Panic remains a director of the company, which makes the hepatitis drug ribavirin. Costa Mesa-based ICN disclosed the payment in a regulatory filing.

ICN named Robert O’Leary chief executive and chairman after Panic lost a proxy fight with dissident shareholders over three seats on the company’s board.

Last 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 U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that doctors wouldn’t be able to use ribavirin, alone, to treat liver disease.