Irish CRO Icon has revoked its 2025 financial guidance and launched an internal investigation after being made aware of possible accounting errors in its prior-year financial statements.
While the investigation, led by an outside legal firm alongside forensic accountants, is still ongoing, evidence so far supports that Icon’s reported revenues for 2023 and 2024 were each overestimated by less than 2%, Icon said in a Feb. 12 release.
The CRO has “a longstanding commitment to quality, integrity and transparency,” CEO Barry Balfe said in the release. “In response to the current investigation, we are implementing a series of corrective actions to enhance our internal controls over financial reporting.”
In addition to withdrawing its prior guidance for 2025, the company is delaying the release of its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results until April 30 at the latest.
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Every 1% overestimate of past revenue could lead to a “wide range” of possible impacts on Icon’s 2023 and 2024 earnings, analysts from Evercore ISI wrote in a Feb. 12 note. As a result, the analysts are suspending their review of Icon’s stock because there is “not sufficient fundamental basis for determining, or there are legal, regulatory or policy constraints around publishing, a rating or target price.”
Icon’s share price plummeted nearly 37% by 11:10 a.m. ET on Thursday, trading at around $84 per share from a closing price of $133.14 on Wednesday.
Like other industry leaders, Icon has struggled in recent years with slowing demand from Big Pharma. Current CEO Balfe took over in October 2025.
