Subject: Damon to Post Profit For Its Third Quarter Against Loss in '86
Date: Published: 7/14/87 59 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Damon to Post Profit
   For Its Third Quarter
   Against Loss in '86

   NEEDHAM HEIGHTS, Mass. -- Damon Corp., buoyed by rapidly
growing profit of its clinical laboratory business, expects
to report earnings of about $1.4 million, or 23 cents a
 share, for its third quarter ended May 31, said David
Kosowsky, chairman and chief executive officer.
    The profit, which includes a $44,000 tax credit, compares
with a net loss of about $123,000 a year earlier, Mr. 
Kosowsky said.  Sales for the latest quarter rose 19% to about
$47 million from $39.4 million.
   For the first nine months, the company expects to post
profit of about $1.5 million, or 25 cents a share, including
a gain of $35,000 from repurchase of debentures, the $44,000
tax credit and a gain of $560,000 from settlement of
litigation, Mr. Kosowsky said.
   In the year-ago period, the company posted a net loss of
$956,000.  Nine-month sales rose 18% to about $130 million
from $110 million.
   Mr. Kosowsky added that if results excluded Damon's
60%-owned biotechnology unit -- in the development stage and
losing money -- the company would expect third-quarter profit
of about $2.5 million, or 45 cents a share.
   Mr. Kosowsky said Damon's fiscal 1987 profits -- also
excluding the biotechnology unit -- are expected to rise more
than 60% from the year-earlier profit of about $4 million, or
63 cents a share.
   "The engine fueling the profit growth is our clinical
laboratory business," which contributes more than half of
Damon's pre-tax profits, Mr. Kosowsky said.  The business
provides laboratory testing services to some 20,000 doctors
and 500 hospitals.  But its recent rapid growth is based
mainly on formation of joint ventures with large hospitals,
he added.
Damon also is benefiting from from U. S. Army contracts for
AIDS testing and has become the nation's largest tester for
the acquired immune deficiency syndrome, Mr. Kosowsky said.
   Sales of Damon's medical products and electronics group
are expected to rise about 13% in fiscal 1987, Mr. Kosowsky
said.  The group's products include centrifuges and a portable
ultrasound diagnostic system Damon introduced last year.
   Losses from Damon's biotechnology unit, Damon Biotech
Inc., are narrowing, partly because of contracts it has
received from Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. and SmithKline
Beckman Corp. for joint development of the unit's version of
tissue plasminogen activator, an experimental blood-clot
dissolver.

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