Shares of ICN Pharmaceuticals Jump

Shares of drugmaker ICN Pharmaceuticals(ICN Quote) rose 30% Thursday after the company beat expectations for its fiscal third quarter and announced a new direction for its business.

The Costa Mesa, Calif.-based company reported a net loss of $74.9 million, or 90 cents a share, compared with a loss of $11.7 million, or 14 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter, according to generally accepted accounting principles. Excluding one-time items, ICN posted a net profit of 18 cents a share, 3 cents ahead of analysts' expectations, and up from the 12 cents it earned a year ago.

The company cited strong sales of its ribavirin drug, a treatment for Hepatitis C, as the catalyst for its third-quarter performance. Earlier this year, ICN partially spun off Ribapharm(RNA Quote), the subsidiary that makes ribavirin, in an initial public offering. ICN received $63.4 million in royalties for ribavirin from Schering-Plough(SGP Quote) in the third quarter, more than doubling last year's intake. ...