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Biotech / Medical : IMAT - ultrafast tomography for coronary artery disease -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Harold who wrote (3570)	9/19/2000 8:05:21 PM
From: art slott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3725

This came out well after the close. Imatron Sees First Annual Profit Since 1991: Bloomberg Forum By David Zielenziger New York, Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Imatron Corp. Chief Executive S. Lewis Meyer said the company this year expects its first annual profit since 1991, driven by sales of electron-beam scanners that detect heart impairments. Net income will be ``around $4 million,'' Meyer told the Bloomberg Forum. That compares with a loss last year of $6.6 million, or 5 cents a share. Third- and fourth-quarter sales each will ``reasonably exceed'' the record $15.5 million in the second quarter, he said. Hospitals and cardiologists are clamoring for Imatron's scanners, selling for about $1.8 million each, Meyer said. The UltraFast CT machine provides ``very rapid scan speed'' pictures of the heart and blood vessels, the CEO said. The patient ``doesn't even have to take his shirt off,'' he said. The scanner is an alternative to coronary angiography, which involves threading a tube through the leg to the heart arteries. It was approved in November by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Second-quarter sales rose 87 percent from $8.28 million a year ago, and Imatron had profit of $1 million, or 1 cent, compared with a loss of $1.9 million, or 2 cents. Imatron, based in South San Francisco, California, had sold its scanners and other medical equipment outside the U.S. to hospitals in Germany, Austria and China. It has about 130 customers worldwide. Imatron also benefited from increased acceptance of its machines by insurance companies, Meyer said. Most medical plans accept the electron-beam scans after a doctor's referral, he said. Imatron's rivals include General Electric Co., Japan's Toshiba Corp., Germany's Siemens AG and Marconi Plc of the U.K., all leaders in medical equipment, Meyer said. GE and Siemens have distributed Imatron's machines. Meyer, 56 years old, has a doctorate in physics from Purdue University. Prior to his 1993 appointment as CEO, he was vice president of operations for Otsuka Electronics (USA) Inc.