Syncor reports record earnings

Pharmaceutical company Syncor attributes record first-quarter earnings to an increase in product prices and rapid growth—15% to 17% a year—in the cardiology market.

Syncor’s net income for the quarter ending March 31 rose by 49% to $7.5 million from $5 million for the same period a year ago. Net sales for the quarter increased by 20% to $149 million, up from $124 million for the same period of 1999.

Cardiolite, Syncor’s heart imaging agent, has a strong presence in the market, said Robert Funari, Syncor’s president and CEO. The company was able to increase many product prices while retaining customers, he added. This year, Syncor will add several new locations to its U.S. pharmacy business, create a line of PET products and services, and introduce iodine-125 seeds into the brachytheraphy market. I-125 seeds are used in radiation therapy.

Comprehensive Medical Imaging, a subsidiary of Syncor, operates 43 imaging centers in Florida, Arizona, and Southern California. In the third quarter of this year, CMI will open its first PET imaging center in Rancho Mirage, CA (SCAN 4/12/00). Last month, Syncor acquired MRI Trinidad and Tobago, an imaging center in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (SCAN 4/26/00).