Milan Panic

Milan Panić, Pharmaceutical Pioneer, Statesman, Athlete and Larger-Than-Life American Story

Obituary

MMilan Panić, the visionary entrepreneur who founded ICN Pharmaceuticals, former Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, World War II veteran, champion cyclist, devoted husband, father and generous friend, died at the age of 96.

Few lives encompassed as much history, ambition, reinvention and human experience as his. From wartime Belgrade to the highest levels of American business, Milan lived with extraordinary courage, energy and conviction.

Born in Belgrade on December 20, 1929, Milan came of age in a Europe transformed by war. Still a teenager, he joined the Yugoslav resistance during World War II. After the war, his extraordinary physical drive found another outlet in competitive cycling, where he rose to the highest levels of Yugoslav cycling and competed internationally.

In the 1950s, he left communist Yugoslavia and came to the United States with little more than determination, intelligence and an almost inexhaustible belief in what was possible. America became his adopted country and the place where that belief could flourish.

In California, he founded what would become ICN Pharmaceuticals in 1959 with only a few hundred dollars. From those modest beginnings, Milan built an international pharmaceutical enterprise, serving for decades as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. ICN grew across countries and continents and became particularly associated with the development and commercialization of antiviral medicines. The company he created would later become Valeant Pharmaceuticals and ultimately Bausch Health.

For Milan, business was never simply about building a company. He was fascinated by science, medicine, discovery and the possibility that human ingenuity could improve and extend human life. He expected enormous energy and commitment from the people around him because he demanded even more from himself.

His life took another extraordinary turn in 1992, when he returned to the country of his birth during one of the darkest periods in its modern history and became Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He entered government not as a conventional politician but as an entrepreneur and outspoken advocate for ending the fighting and seeking peace. 

It was characteristic of Milan to believe that even problems others considered impossible were worth confronting. That conviction followed him throughout his life.

He had survived war, left one political system behind, started over in a foreign country, built a pharmaceutical company from almost nothing, competed at the highest levels of sport and business, and returned decades later to the turbulent land of his birth believing that one determined individual could still make a difference.

Those achievements made Milan Panić a public figure, but they tell only part of his story.

To those closest to him, Milan was charismatic, energetic, demanding, curious, funny, stubborn, generous and unforgettable. He possessed an extraordinary appetite for life. He loved people, ideas, competition, conversation and possibility. Even into advanced age, the force of his personality could fill a room.

He was deeply generous to friends, colleagues and employees, and throughout his long life helped, encouraged and opened doors for countless people. Many who worked with him remembered not simply an employer, but a man who challenged them to think bigger than they had imagined for themselves.

Behind the businessman, athlete and statesman was the husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather whose family formed the most intimate chapter of his remarkable life.

He leaves behind his beloved wife, Alexandra, his companion and partner through the later decades of his extraordinary journey. He leaves behind his children, Dawn, Vickie, Spencer, Tim and Alex, and his grandchildren, Yasin, Yusra, Mathew and Andrea. He also leaves behind his great-grandchildren, James, Luke, and Gabriella, extending his family’s story into another generation.

Milan lived on a scale that was uniquely his own. He did not merely observe history; again and again, he stepped directly into it. He was shaped by two continents, by war and peace, communism and American capitalism, science and politics, victory and adversity.
Through it all ran the same irrepressible conviction: that tomorrow could be better than today, that difficult problems existed to be solved, and that life was meant to be lived fully.

Milan Panić was, quite simply, larger than life.

His professional accomplishments will remain part of the historical record. The pharmaceutical company he created, the political battles he fought, the scientific work he championed and the remarkable journey from wartime Belgrade to American entrepreneurship are an enduring legacy.

But for the people who loved him, his greatest legacy cannot be measured in companies, titles or history books. It is measured in the lives he changed, the opportunities he created, the people he believed in, the family he loved and the extraordinary force of life that was Milan.

He will be profoundly missed and forever remembered.

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