The board of Invitron Corp. of St. Louis will recommend thatshareholders vote in March to liquidate what's left of thecompany, following the recent sale of its cell culture facility.

Shareholders at a meeting planned for sometime in March willchoose to shut down the company or have it try to survive on$3.1 million received from the facility sale, according to RichardA. Kaufman, Invitron's executive vice president and generalcounsel.

Invitron last December agreed to sell its St. Louis operations toCentocor Inc. of Malvern, Pa., in a deal valued at $6 million. Thethree-way transaction included a debt settlement withMonsanto Co. of St. Louis, the cash payment and Invitron'srepurchase from Monsanto for $100,000 a 58 percent equityinterest in Invitron.

Monsanto will not vote its shares on the proposal, Kaufmansaid. Other major Invitron shareholders are SmithKlineBeecham Corp., with nearly 10 percent of Invitron's sharesoutstanding, and Moshe Alafi, president of Alafi Capital Co.,who owns about 6 percent.

Invitron now owns rights to technology developed at itsRedwood City, Calif., site. Several products are now in animaltesting. -- Carol Ezzell

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