Corporate Move to East Begun by Environmental Diagnostics

Environmental Diagnostics Inc. said that it has begun moving its corporate offices from Irvine to Burlington, N.C., the headquarters of Granite Technological Enterprises Inc., which Environmental has agreed to acquire for 2 million newly issued shares of common stock.

In all, about 10 officers and employees will move to the larger facility in Burlington, the company said. The remaining four or five employees will stay in Irvine with Environmental’s Disease Detection International unit.

Environmental Diagnostics said the Granite acquisition should be complete within the next week or two. Environmental Diagnostics, which will be the surviving company when the acquisition is completed, also has agreed to acquire privately held Receptor Molecules Inc., a Tallahassee, Fla., maker of test agents that have environmental and medical applications. Under terms of the agreement, Environmental Diagnostics will issue 6 million new shares of common stock, raising its total number of outstanding common shares to about 24 million.

Environmental Diagnostics develops and makes test kits for detecting hazardous and toxic substances in water, soil, food and animals; privately held Granite marketed and sold those products.

As reported, Environmental Diagnostics is developing a kit to instantly determine if someone has used marijuana in the prior 90 minutes. The kit is “still in the research and development stage,” a company spokesman said.