Subject: Carrington Labs Gets Approval to Market Animal-Cancer Drug
Date: Published: 11/5/91 (52 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Technology:
    Carrington Labs Gets
    Approval to Market
    Animal-Cancer Drug

    DALLAS -- Carrington Laboratories Inc. has received
 conditional approval to market its drug acemannan for a form
 of animal cancer, marking the first time the drug has been
 approved for treating a disease, said Karl H. Meister,
 president and chief executive officer.
    Mr. Meister, in an interview, also said he expects the
 company to report its first profitable year in more than
 eight years.  Carrington has reported a profit through the
 fiscal 1991 nine months of $724,333, including tax benefits
 of $235,800, and Mr. Meister said he expects that results for
 the fourth quarter ending Nov. 30 will be comparable to
 third-quarter net income of $403,309, or five cents a share,
 after a tax benefit of $132,000.  For all of fiscal 1990,
 Carrington had a net loss of $6.1 million, or 98 cents a
 share, on sales of $11.6 million.
    Sales for fiscal 1991 should be 36% to 38% higher than
 last year's and Mr. Meister said the company is "endeavoring
 to maintain" that growth rate.
    For the foreseeable future, at least, acemannan won't be
 contributing much to those sales and profits.  The U. S. 
 Department of Agriculture approved marketing the drug only as
 an immune system stimulant to treat canine and feline
 fibrosarcoma, a rare animal cancer that currently isn't
 treatable.  The Agriculture Department also is requiring the
 company to conduct further studies on the drug's
 effectiveness before it gives its unconditional approval.  But
 because the disease is so rare, Carrington needs to test
 fewer animals than it would if it aimed the drug at more
 common cancers, Mr. Meister said.
    Still, "this approval gives Carrington's research a
 tremendous credibility boost," Mr. Meister said.
    Long a favorite of Wall Street short sellers, who trade in
 hopes that the stock price will fall, the company's stock has
 climbed and crashed in recent years as company officials
 touted its drug as one that might help cure AIDS, cancer and
 other serious diseases.  However, the company doesn't yet have
 U. S. Food and Drug Administration approval for human tests of
 the drug, an extract of the aloe vera plant that also is
 known by the trade name Carrisyn.

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