Source Scientific Inc. Loses 2nd Planned Merger Partner

Biomedical company Source Scientific Inc. has lost its second proposed merger partner this year.

Biopool International Inc., a Ventura maker of medical test kits, said Tuesday that it had dropped plans to buy Source Scientific, a maker of diagnostic instruments. The proposed deal was announced Nov. 6, the same day that Source Scientific called off plans to merge with Ontario-based XCEL Corp.

Richard A. Sullivan, Source Scientific’s president and chief executive, said the company is looking for other avenues of funding.

Biopool would have become Source Scientific’s fourth corporate parent in eight years. The Garden Grove company was previously a unit of Chicago-based Quixote Corp., MicroProbe Corp. in Bothell, Wash., and most recently Irvine-based Alton Group, which assumed the Source Scientific name after a transaction last year.

Source Scientific lost $400,000 on revenue of $5 million for the year ended June 30, compared with losses of $2 million and the same amount of sales in the preceding year.