Iris International rebounds with $2 million supply contract.

URINALYSIS equipment maker Iris International Inc., whose stock took a 23 percent hit on a second-quarter loss aggravated by delayed orders, scored a win last week with a lucrative urinalysis equipment and supply contract.

The contract with Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings, whose LabCorp is the nation's second largest clinical reference laboratory, will initially generate $2 million for 26 of the Chatsworth-based company's automated urine microscopy analyzers. Iris is hoping it will lead to far more orders.

"This is a flagship account and we want everything to work perfectly," said Iris chief executive Cesar Garcia.

The machines will be installed in 13 of Burlington, N.C.-based LabCorp.'s busiest medical diagnostic facilities around the country between now and the end of the year.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the machine, the iQ200 Sprint, can perform up to 101 tests an hour and sells for around $80,000. In addition, Iris will receive ongoing revenue to service and supply the labs with disposable supplies for the machines.

Garcia said he was proud that his small company had won the LabCorp contract away from larger competitors, including the supplier the laboratory had used for several years. He added that Iris has other multi-site, multi-unit deals in the pipeline, and might even expect additional orders from LabCorp if the initial rollout goes well.

Shares of Iris, which had dropped to a 52-week low of $8.70 on Aug. 3 following the quarterly report, had been recovering and gained another 5.4 percent to close Sept. 14 at $10.55 on news of the contract.