Innotron Suspends Payments to Creditors; Posts Loss for ’84

Innotron Diagnostics, an Irvine maker of blood-testing equipment, reported Monday that it is within months of depleting its cash reserves and has suspended paying its creditors to preserve what money it does have.

Underscoring its “serious financial condition,” the company also said it lost about $1.7 million in the 1984 calendar year, compared to the $1-million loss in 1983.

Innotron is negotiating with its creditors to restructure its debts and secure new financing that would be personally guaranteed by “certain shareholders of the company,” the company said in a prepared statement. Although the company offered no assurances, it said it expected the debt restructuring and new financing package to be arranged by April 15.

The announcements from Innotron, a 3-year-old company that has never turned a profit, come just six weeks after the company revealed that it had closed its insolvent manufacturing subsidiary in England and had changed its focus in the competitive medical testing field.

Donald Frank, Innotron’s president, was unavailable for comment on the latest disclosures, which were made in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Without additional money, the company said it would deplete its current resources by June 30.

In reporting its earnings, the company said revenues during 1984 rose 33% to $858,000, from $645,000 recorded in 1983.