IVAX To Distribute Letter To Shareholders.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 2002

IVAX Corporation (AMEX:IVX) (LSE:IVX.L) will distribute a general letter to shareholders, the text of which follows.

August 16, 2002

Dear Fellow Shareholders:

As you know, we recently reported earnings for the second quarter of 2002 and are quite pleased to have resumed the upward trend to which we had become accustomed over the last several years. This results from the steady development of most parts of our business even though paclitaxel sales are no longer an important contributor.

Because of the diverse nature of our business - a diversity that has been a constant strategic goal of management - we thought it worthwhile to underscore certain elements of our present business we consider to be of importance.

IVAX PHARMACEUTICALS

Our U.S. brand equivalent business is quite good; paclitaxel aside, net sales for the first 6 months were 15% greater than last year's. Pricing has, in general, been firm, but lower prices for certain products along with greater unit demand for these and for recently approved products have put pressure on manufacturing capacity. This is, in a way, good news, but back-orders can occur which sometimes prevent us from delivering the high level of customer service for which we strive in all our units. We are actively working on several approaches to increasing our production capacity, which could accelerate the future growth of this business unit. We continue to receive our share of product approvals in the U.S. and, of course, are active in submitting new applications.

IVAX LABORATORIES

We continue to invest in our U.S. proprietary business. In order to build the sales of our recently acquired products, Nasarel(R), to treat rhinitis, and QVAR(R), to treat asthma, we have been building a strong sales force. Richard Denness, the President of IVAX Laboratories, has recently been joined by Mason Gervasi as National Sales Director, Derek Kish as Director of Marketing, and Glen Oneidas, as Director of Managed Care. All bring to IVAX a record of great success in previous positions. Although presently available products have great growth potential, those presently under development may have far greater potential and, once they are approved for marketing, the national sales force we are building will permit their commercialization without delay.

LATIN AMERICA 

Our strategy to expand in Latin America has proven to be wise. In spite of a serious currency devaluation in Argentina, sales and profits for the region in dollar terms contributed significantly to our consolidated revenues and profits. We are fortunate to have superb country managers in each case. In Argentina, the devaluation was partially offset by greater operating efficiency and price increases. In Venezuela, a currency devaluation was more than offset by price increases resulting in continued strong profit growth. In Chile, sales and earnings continue to be strong. In Mexico our new General Manager, Vincenzo D'Elia, is rapidly expanding our private sector business while we actively add newly approved products to compete in government tenders. Pedro Morfin and Arturo Garza, serving as business development assistants to Roberto Prego, our Vice President for Latin America, have made important contributions to this effort which should be reflected in future financial results.

IVAX UK

Frank Condella, our new General Manager in the UK, brings great experience in all aspects of the pharmaceutical business to this position. His mission is to stimulate sales while cutting costs by operating with greater efficiency. This market has significant growth potential.

IVAX FRANCE 

Our strategy for France is to build our own company. We have a new general manager, Stephane Joly, a rising star in the industry, to build a proprietary as well as brand equivalent business. For starters, we have purchased a group of product registrations from Merck, France, which we will start commercializing in September. In addition, we will expand the marketing of our own recently approved proprietary respiratory products. This approach, though providing slower growth, avoids the larger investments required for acquisitions.

IVAX CZECH REPUBLIC 

Our Czech unit is doing well in all of its markets. It sells in all of the former Soviet republics as well as in the Czech and Slovak republics and has been successfully introducing our proprietary respiratory products as they are approved in various countries. Being one of the few manufacturers of the anti-transplant rejection drug, cyclosporin, IVAX Czech will begin to realize even greater sales and profit growth as our generic version of the final dosage form of this important product is approved in markets around the world. In the U.S., we expect approval for our generic cyclosporin in the near future. Our administrative offices in Prague experienced outages of electricity and telephone service during the recent floods but there was no serious damage. Our manufacturing facility in Opava was not effected.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

IVAX Research, our proprietary drug unit, and the IVAX Institute for Drug Research, in Budapest, Hungary continue to discover new drug candidates. The clinical projects described in our annual report are progressing and, in fact, the number of promising new drugs is so large that it seems prudent to begin to out license some in order to share risks and still participate in the eventual profits. We will, of course, communicate specific developments as they occur.

As always, we thank our shareholders for their loyal support.

Very truly yours,

Phillip Frost, M.D. Isaac Kaye Neil Flanzraich Chairman and Deputy Chief Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Executive Officer President

Jane Hsiao, Ph.D Vice Chairman Technical Affairs and Chief Technical Officer

IVAX Corporation, headquartered in Miami, Florida, discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets branded and brand equivalent (generic) pharmaceuticals and veterinary products in the U.S. and internationally.

Copies of this and other news releases may be obtained free of charge from IVAX' web site at http://www.ivax.com. Shareholders and prospective investors can register to automatically receive the company's press releases via email at http://www.ivax.com/ComNewsv2.htm.

The statements in this press release and letter, except for the historical matters contained herein, are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that cannot be predicted or quantified and, consequentially, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, that the impact of competitive products and prices may be greater than anticipated; that political and economic instability in some countries in which we conduct our business, particularly Argentina and other Latin American countries, may adversely affect the revenue our foreign operations generate; that we have in the past and may in the future experience difficulties in obtaining raw materials necessary for the production of our products, particularly paclitaxel, on commercially reasonable terms or at all; that our efforts to increase our manufacturing capacity may not be successful, which could impede our future growth; that clinical trials and studies for products and compounds under development may not be commenced, may take longer than anticipated, may fail, may not achieve the expected results or effectiveness and may not generate the data that would support the approval or marketing of these products for the indications being stated or for other indications; that the compounds and products in our research pipeline will not be successfully developed, will not receive regulatory approval or will not be successfully commercialized; that we may not be able to enter into strategic partnerships or out licensing agreements which would generate milestone or royalty payments or reduce costs; that we may not increase our sales force; and that our businesses and sales and profitability may not grow as anticipated or at all. In addition to the risk factors set forth above, our forward-looking statements may also be adversely affected by general market factors, competitive product development, product availability, current and future branded and generic competition for our products, federal and state regulations and legislation, the regulatory process for new products and indications, manufacturing issues that may arise, trade buying patterns, exchange rate fluctuations, patent positions and the timing and outcome of legal proceedings, among other things. For further details and discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see IVAX' Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. IVAX undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.