The need of insurers to test for...

The need of insurers to test for the AIDS virus among applicants for life insurance led Transamerica Occidental Life of Los Angeles to enter a partnership with Jim Osborn, founder of Home Office Reference Laboratory, which he sold in 1983, to establish Osborn Laboratories in Olathe, Kan. Osborn will be chief executive and control 60% of the new venture, which is expected to begin operation next March. It will be one of only three such testing facilities in the country to cater to the life-insurance industry, providing blood, urine and other testing services required to determine insurability--a need that increased dramatically because of the rapid spread of the AIDS virus and growing incidence of cocaine usage.