Vital Living Anthrax Test Won't Be at Ace Hardware (Update1)
By David Evans
Matthews, North Carolina, Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Vital Living Products Inc.'s anthrax test kits won't be carried by Ace Hardware Corp. stores. Vital Living announced last month that the No. 2 U.S. hardware-store cooperative would carry the product.
``We've made a decision not to stock the test kits,'' said Ace spokeswoman Paula Erickson. ``It's a result of all the concerns expressed by medical experts and some government agencies.'' She said Vital Living was notified of Ace's decision today.
Vital Living shares fell 4 cents to 66 cents. They gained 28 percent on Oct. 22, after the company announced that Ace agreed to carry the do-it-yourself test. The next day, they touched $2.03, before Bloomberg News reported Ace was only reviewing the test kit. At their high, Vital Living's shares were up 40-fold from their closing price of 5 cents on Oct. 1.
Erickson said two independently owned Ace stores have agreed to carry the kit. There are 5,100 Ace stores in the U.S.
Meijer Inc., a Michigan-based retail chain that operates 152 supermarkets, has also denied Vital Living's claims that it agreed to sell the company's anthrax test kits.
Vital Living President Donald Podrebarac wasn't immediately available for comment.
In an interview last week, Podrebarac said the company's test may produce a false negative, or fail to detect anthrax when it is present. The company hasn't determined how often that happens, he said.
`False Negative'
`There's a lot of things that can cause a false negative,'' Podrebarac said. ``Somebody not doing the test right, or not having the right incubation time, or not having the right temperature.''
Experts advise people who discover the possible presence of anthrax to move away and call the police. While Podrebarac agrees authorities should be called if someone believes they have been exposed to anthrax, he still recommends the kit for testing such things as suspicious letters.
Vital Living said today it has received orders totaling $150,000 for the kits -- called Purtest -- that are to begin shipping ``around Thanksgiving.''
The company's net worth on June 30 was a negative $2.3 million. Wagner Noble & Co., its outside auditor, warned in February that there was ``substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.'' |
