The current market is causing difficult times...

The current market is causing difficult times for some local biotechnology companies, as investors are becoming wary of promises and over-anxious for earnings, according to Irving Katz, director of research at San Diego Securities.

A case in point is Quidel, which last week canceled a scheduled $20-million public offering because of concern that “support for the stock would not be strong.” Because of the unstable market, Quidel instead will try to raise about $10 million through a private offering.

Syntro Corp., hich is using molecular biology to develop special chemical products and vaccines for the animal health market, went public with 1.35 million shares at $8, down from the 2 million shares originally scheduled, Katz said.

The stock has been off sharply during the four days it has been publicly traded, moving to as low as 5 on Monday before finding some support to close at 5 3/4.

Molecular Biosystems was down thirteen-sixteenths after a recent sharp upward prompted by publicity about an improved AIDS diagnosis test.

Synbiotics bucked the trend and was up one-quarter as the market digested its recent offering of company stock at 8 3/4, Katz observed. Synbiotics will join the NASDAQ National Market System today, bringing the total number of issues traded to 2,505.

New additions to the local stock list this week include the recently offered Pacific Southwest Airlines (the airline subsidiary of PSA) and Syntro. In addition, DH Technology, Telequest and Xytronyx, which all recently moved their headquarters to San Diego, appear on the list.