ICN Enters Joint Venture With Chinese Drug Firm
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COSTA MESA — ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., pursuing its strategy of getting an early foothold in emerging markets, said Wednesday that it is forming a joint venture with Wuxi Pharmaceutical Corp., a company in China’s Jiangsu province.
ICN said it will own 75% of the new venture, to be called Wuxi ICN Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., and Wuxi Pharmaceutical will own the rest. “A key element of ICN’s long-term business strategy is to move early into burgeoning pharmaceutical markets,” said Milan Panic, ICN’s chairman and chief executive.
ICN said the deal was similar to two others it has undertaken in Yugoslavia and Russia. In both countries, ICN obtained controlling interests of local companies that were previously government-owned.
The company, which manufactures and markets a broad range of prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, said the joint venture in China will immediately begin building a $24-million manufacturing plant in Wuxi. The venture in eastern China is expected to employ about 1,550 people, ICN said.
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