Kodak Ending Research Partnership With ICN

ICN Pharmaceuticals, a Costa Mesa drug manufacturer, said Thursday that New York-based Kodak is withdrawing from a joint venture partnership that the two companies formed for the discovery of new drug compounds.

ICN said that under the partnership dissolution agreement, ICN will retain the rights to all drugs currently being researched by the joint venture, called the Nucleic Acid Research Institute.

ICN will keep all personnel and property of the institute, which was housed in a 61,000-square-foot facility on the second floor of ICN headquarters.

Kodak also has given ICN the rest of the $45 million that it had agreed to provide in funding over six years when the joint venture was established in 1985, ICN spokesman Jack Sholl said.

ICN officials said Kodak decided to withdraw from the joint venture because it has its own pharmaceutical research and development group from the acquisition of Sterling Drug earlier this year.

ICN said Kodak was concerned that some of Sterling Drug’s research activities compete with those of the institute.

Kodak officials could not be reached for comment. However, Sholl said the breakup of the research partnership was amicable. He said Kodak will continue to manufacture ribavirin for ICN, which markets the drug as an anti-viral medication.

Sholl said ICN is pleased with the progress made by the Nucleic Acid Research Institute. He said the institute has focused its research efforts on drugs to combat viruses, cancer and aging and has identified several compounds with promise for commercial development.