Cost-cutting impacts Positron results

PET developer Positron’s year of hibernation was reflected in the company’s 1998 financial results (end-December), which were released this month. The Houston company sold no systems in 1998, compared with one sale of $1.1 million the year before. The vendor reported revenues of $2 million last year, thanks to service and fee-per-scan revenues, while in 1997 Positron had sales of $3.5 million. Positron did have some good news for the year, however. Thanks to cost-cutting efforts, its net loss decreased to $724,000, an improvement on last year’s loss of $4.5 million.

Yet despite modest results for 1998, Positron may be gaining strength. In April 1998, the company was unsure it could continue as a going concern; in May, it signed an agreement with South San Francisco CT developer Imatron, in which Imatron acquired a majority stake in Positron and began feeding the company working capital (SCAN 5/13/98). Imatron’s purchase was finalized early this year, and since then Imatron has been negotiating with third-party investors to help resuscitate the company (SCAN 2/3/99).