Applied Bioscience International Inc. said Thursday that it hassigned an agreement for one of its subsidiaries, ETC Corp., topurchase for cash the assets of Southeastern Capital Corp.'scommercial laboratory business, National Express LaboratoriesInc.

Both companies' boards have approved the transaction, APBI(NASDAQ:APBI) of East Millstone, N.J., said. The deal is expectedto be completed this month.

NATEX, an established commercial testing laboratory groupthat serves the environmental services industry, operates threecommercial laboratories, in New Orleans, Mountain View, Calif,and Redmond, Wash. Denis Lin, president of NATEX, willbecome president of the combined ETC/NATEX lab group.

ETC operates commercial environmental testing labs in Edison,N.J., and Santa Rosa, Calif.

APBI's services include biological safety testing, clinicalresearch and development, agrichemical research anddevelopment, and the management and assessment ofenvironmental risk.

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.