ICN Pharmaceuticals Puts Annual Meeting on Hold : Shareholders: Costa Mesa-based drug company is threatened by a possible proxy battle for leadership control.

COSTA MESA —  Embroiled in a growing battle over its leadership, ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Tuesday that it has postponed its annual meeting indefinitely.

ICN spokesman Paul Knopick gave no reason for the delay, adding that it has not been decided when a new date will be announced.

The Costa Mesa-based drug company’s three subsidiaries, however, are scheduled to hold annual meetings next week, Knopick said.

Subsidiaries Viratek Inc. and ICN Biomedicals Inc. have set annual meetings for May 11, while ICN’s chief subsidiary, SPI Pharmaceuticals Inc., is scheduled to hold its annual meeting on May 12, Knopick said.

Knopick said that ICN Pharmaceuticals was tentatively scheduled to hold its annual meeting May 12. But proxy statements, which detail issues the board would be addressing, and the date of the annual meeting were never mailed to shareholders.

By contrast, proxy statements for ICN’s three subsidiaries were sent out last week.

Chairman Milan Panic, who returned to the United States early this year from an eight-month stint as premier of Yugoslavia, has come under fire by several stockholders seeking his ouster.

Disgruntled shareholders have criticized Panic’s generous compensation--he was Orange County’s highest-paid executive in 1991, earning more than $6 million, and he continued to draw his annual $600,000 salary while serving as the Yugoslav prime minister.

Meantime, the company has been suffering financially, in part because of losses at Belgrade-based ICN Galenika during the ongoing civil war. ICN recently reported a 1992 loss of $65 million on sales of $552 million.

ICN stock closed Tuesday at $10.75 a share on the New York Stock Exchange, up 37.5 cents a share.

Stockbroker Rhafi M. Khan, of Beverly Hills brokerage Reynolds Kendrick & Stratton, has threatened a proxy battle at ICN’s next board meeting in an effort to replace Panic and the other seven board members. He was unavailable Tuesday for comment.

Khan and ICN are involved in two lawsuits. The firm accuses him of violating federal securities laws by using insider information to launch his bid for control of the drug company.

A judge in New York has issued a restraining order against Khan, preventing him from soliciting shareholder proxies.

Khan has filed a countersuit, accusing Panic of breaking federal laws by continuing to transact ICN business while in Yugoslavia. Panic had promised federal authorities that he would refrain from such activities in exchange for allowing him to serve in a foreign post. Panic, a Yugoslavia emigre, is a naturalized U.S. citizen.