BioSource Reaps Rewards From Overseas Unit

It didn’t take long for BioSource International of Camarillo to reap rewards from its recent European expansion.

Less than a month after BioSource Europe SA began operation, the overseas subsidiary contributed $68,000 in profits to the local biotech company.

These profits helped BioSource record overall net income of $590,900 on revenues of $3.3 million for the second quarter of 1996 ended June 30. This compares to income of $287,386 on revenue of $2.1 million for the same period in 1995.

At the start of June, BioSource combined its existing European work force with the Belgium-based Medgenix Diagnostics SA, which the company acquired from Nordion International of Canada. As part of the $6.56-million transaction, BioSource also received four Medgenix subsidiaries, located in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and France.

Jim Chamberlain, president and chief executive of BioSource International, said the early performance of BioSource Europe is particularly encouraging given its history under Nordion.

“It had not made a profit in nine years and under our direction and control it was profitable in the first 25 days,” Chamberlain said. “We expected it to be profitable early, but were we absolutely assured that we would see this much profit in 25 days? No.”

BioSource is a supplier of immunological reagents and test kits used in biomedical research to measure the amounts of certain proteins in the body’s blood or other fluid.

In addition to its kits, BioSource manufactures custom DNA segments, portions of genes created synthetically that are incorporated into the test kits for the manufacturing of proteins.

The company’s second-quarter earnings contributed to record figures for BioSource for the first six months of 1996. The company posted net income of $1.1 million on revenues of $5.8 million for the first two quarters of 1996, compared to net income of $402,580 on revenue of $4.1 million in 1995.

Chamberlain attributed much of the success to a greater presence in the domestic marketplace.

“We’re capturing a little more of the [overall] market share,” Chamberlain said. “We are introducing more products and we are doing it with a little more strategy in new product planning. We’re not just bringing out a new product and seeing how it does. We are trying to target it.”