NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., – Pharma insider Mark Taylor today published “Warrior CEO”, a unique pictorial chronicle of the life and times of Milan Panic and his ICN team as they trail blazed markets around the world to build a top fifty drug company around their prized antiviral discovery ribavirin.
A biochemist by training, the one-time Yugoslav freedom fighter and bicycle champ Panic led ICN from a speculative penny stock in the go-go ’60s to one of the “top 50” pharmaceutical companies in the world. Along the way, Panic acquired 75 companies and raised over $5 billion using a dazzling mix of creative financing and deal making across multiple continents, currencies, and markets. Critics and regulators routinely challenged his tactics, called him a rogue, even tried to unseat him in proxy fights. Yet Panic managed to persevere and lead ICN to extraordinary growth and profits by the time of his retirement.
Warrior CEO provides a historical, first-hand visual lookback into 4 decades of the Panic era before ICN became Valeant. “Milan’s story begins at the dawning of the global pharmaceutical industry,” said Canadian drug entrepreneur Jonathan Goodman, whose father Morris worked with Panic in the early days before founding the generic powerhouse Pharmascience Inc. “Taylor does a brilliant job of capturing the trials and tribulations of CEO Panic’s quest to build a company around a single scientific discovery,” he added.
“I’ve had the good fortune of knowing Milan fifty years and have been inspired by his enormous body of work after starting with nothing more than a vision for nucleic acids and a few scientists,” said the author Mark Taylor. “The book is a tribute not only to his accomplishments but also to the hard work and devotion of thousands of ICN colleagues who helped him propel a start-up that defied the odds to reach the ultimate goal…a life-saving drug,” added Taylor.
About The Author
Based in Laguna Hills, CA., Mark Taylor served as ICN’s executive vice president from 2000 to 2002. He is the co-founder and CEO of Hallux Inc., a drug development company working on a novel antifungal form and route for treating onychomycosis. Marks’ pharma experience spans three decades and includes executive roles at SPI Pharma, Viratek, Obagi Medical and Watson Labs. In 2003 to 2008, he was a “best on the street” institutional analyst covering as many as 25 specialty pharmaceutical and medical device companies at a time. He and his wife Gina live in Newport Coast, CA.