Test Kit Maker Sells $3 Million Worth of Stock

IRVINE — Disease Detection International Inc., a maker of pregnancy and AIDS testing kits, said Monday that it has sold $3 million worth of convertible preferred stock in a private placement--which should help get the company’s common stock listed on the NASDAQ market for small corporations.

The Irvine concern said it will ask owners of the common stock to approve a 1-for-10 reverse split at the annual meeting in July. That means the 10.5 million shares outstanding at the end of last year would become about 1 million shares, each of which would be valued at 10 times what the old shares cost.

That boost in the price of each share should help Disease Detection meet the requirements for trading on NASDAQ, said the company, which will apply for the listing after the annual meeting. The common stock now trades over the counter.

The company said it will use the $3 million from the sale of the new preferred stock to internationally market its Pro-Step HCG one-step pregnancy test and to market its seven-minute AIDS test, SeroCard-HIV, in South America.

The AIDS test has not yet been cleared for use in the United States, so some of the money will help pay for testing to secure approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Preferred stock is often a more secure investment because it pays a predetermined dividend and its owners get their dividends before holders of common stock.