Pharmacist Buys Back Software Business He Started

Pharmacist Roger Klotz said Tuesday that he bought a controlling interest in a Tustin software company he founded 11 years ago for $1.5 million.

Klotz started Specialized Clinical Services Inc. in 1987 to sell patient-tracking software to pharmacies and other health-care providers to home-based patients. Klotz, while remaining its chief executive, sold the company in 1989 to the former Tokos Medical Corp. in a stock exchange valued at about $500,000.

Santa Ana-based Tokos, which provided home care to women with high-risk pregnancies, merged in 1996 with an industry rival--Healthdyne Inc., of Marietta, Ga. The combined company, named Matria Healthcare Inc., now based in Marietta, decided Specialized Clinical didn’t fit in with its businesses and started to look for a buyer a year and a half ago.

After no suitable buyers surfaced, Klotz and the unit’s operating executive, Cynthia Spano, bought the company. Klotz owns 80%; Spano, 20%.

Specialized employs 24 people and its annual revenue has ranged from $2.5 million to $3.5 million in the last several years, Spano said.

Under terms of the deal, Matria will receive $300,000 and a $1.2-million note from the buyers.