Biopool Expects to Report Record Sales

Biopool International Inc., a Ventura-based producer of test kits for diagnosing blood and vascular disorders, says it believes recent weakness in its stock is unwarranted. The company expects to report record sales and “significantly improved” earnings for 1994.

Biopool is the target of a lawsuit filed by a Camarillo company charging Biopool with misappropriating trade secrets. Biopool has denied the charges and has filed a countersuit.

Michael D. Bick, Biopool’s chairman and chief executive, said he expects net income for 1994 to exceed the previous year’s profit by at least 50%.

Biopool reported net income of $549,000 for the first nine months of 1994. Bick said it is too early to estimate fourth-quarter profits.

The company had net income of $360,000 in all of 1993.

Bick said he expects 1994 revenues to rise about 25% to about $5.4 million from $4.3 million in 1993.

In December, Medical Analysis Systems, based in Camarillo, filed a suit alleging that Biopool and a Biopool subsidiary, Medical Diagnostic Technologies, misappropriated traded secrets related to the production of liquid control and reagent products.

Biopool filed a countersuit in January, claiming libel, slander and unfair competition.

Bick said Medical Analysis’ claims are “frivolous and completely without merit.” He added that the products in question accounted for less than 2% of Biopool’s revenues in 1994, making the legal dispute “virtually meaningless to the company’s operating results.”