18% Year over Year top line growth is fueled by GenPath and GeneDx

Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRLI) (Except for Per Share Data or where otherwise noted, numbers are in thousands) announced that the Company recorded current quarter revenues of $77,776, the best ever quarter in terms of revenues in corporate history and an increase of 18% over the $65,961 recorded in the third quarter, fiscal year 2007. Net income after taxes in Q3FY08 was $4,737 resulting in fully diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $.34, up 13% each from the prior fiscal year third quarter net income after taxes of $4,189 and EPS of $.30. Gross profit on revenues for the current quarter was $38,606 resulting in a margin for gross profit on revenues of 50%, versus the $33,494, or 51%, reported for the prior fiscal year third quarter. Revenue per patient for the third quarter of the current fiscal year was $74.11, an increase of 9% over the $68.08 reported for the same quarter of the prior fiscal year. The number of patients served increased 9% to 1,042 in the current quarter from the prior year third quarter total of 953. Esoteric business for the Company was 48% of revenues for the third quarter of the current fiscal year. Cash flow from operations for the current fiscal year quarter was more than $7.1 million. The Company further noted that Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) were 108 days compared to the prior fiscal year same period when the DSO were 114 days.

Nine month revenues increased to $219,834, an increase of 22% over the same period revenues of $180,636 in the prior fiscal year. Net income after taxes for the first nine months of the current year was $10,372 resulting in an EPS of $.74; this was an increase of 11% from the prior year same period net income after taxes of $9,313 which resulted in an EPS of $.67. The Company reported gross profit on revenues for the current nine month period of $106,438, resulting in a margin for gross profit on revenues of 48% compared to the prior year same period of $90,211 which resulted in a margin of 50%. The number of patients served increased 13% to 3,055 in the first nine months of the current year from the prior year same period total of 2,709.

The Company noted that it had announced a Stock Buy Back Plan during the course of the third quarter of the current fiscal year and it re-purchased a total of approximately twenty thousand shares during the quarter pursuant to that Plan. The Company continued to invest in Research and Development (R&D) for the GenPath and GeneDx divisions and that R&D continued to hold steady at the same rate as the prior two fiscal quarters, or about $.06 per share total for the first nine months of the current fiscal year.

Marc D. Grodman, MD, CEO, commented “We saw continued growth across the board in all of our segments, but especially in our GenPath and GeneDx divisions where we have been focusing our growth investment over the past few quarters. We are seeing excellent results from those efforts. Our expanded sales force in GenPath has enabled us to increase market share and expand our markets into more areas of the country. It is still early in the sales cycle for the expanded sales efforts, but our growth in esoteric testing is primarily attributable to GenPath. We have expanded our test menu by introducing important tests that the hematology / oncology market needs to provide state of the art personalized medicine. We have introduced our new series of pharmacogenomic tests and we are introducing new industry-leading reporting solutions that will continue to enhance our reputation as the premier laboratory for hematopathology and oncology. We are introducing our second generation Women’s Health Initiative this week; we will be offering a new suite of affordable test panels that we believe will have a huge impact on the ability of physicians to provide better, safer, more efficient healthcare.“

Dr. Grodman further noted: “On a year over year basis, GeneDx increased revenues by 70% during the current fiscal quarter and we have now begun offering our GeneDx testing for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM). The demand for and the interest in this test has been extremely high. As with GenPath, the keys to our testing are outstanding science, superior educational and clinical support and affordability. With the introduction of our HCM test, we have begun making genetic testing available to the office physician. This was one of our stated goals when we acquired GeneDx two years ago and we continue to believe that achievement of this goal will have a huge effect on the way medicine is practiced in the future. GeneDx has long been the laboratory of choice for geneticists; we believe that our new HCM test offering and the other significant genetic tests that we will begin to offer in the coming quarters will allow us to achieve that goal.”

Dr. Grodman continued: “We have now annualized the changes in the New York clinical market and we have been able to sustain strong growth in that business segment. The playing field has evened in the Metropolitan area and we have continued to take advantage of the opportunities presented. We have seen steady growth and we have been able to extract good leverage in the cost structure of acquiring this steady stream of new business. As we indicated in our last call, we were compelled to accelerate some spending this year to take advantage of market opportunities, but our margins and cash flow over the last quarter improved since the expenses had already been assimilated earlier in the fiscal year. Our gross profit on revenues improved by over 150 basis points from Q2 of the current fiscal year to the current fiscal quarter and our combined Other SGA and Marketing expenses improved by over 100 basis points as we began to see leverage on our Q2 investments. We are very pleased with our current quarter growth rate of 18%, particularly since we believe that it could have been even higher if general economic conditions in the country had been better during the period.”

The Company’s third quarter earnings conference call has been scheduled to take place this morning, September 4th, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The live audio Web cast will be available at the Company’s corporate Web site, www.bioreference.com and through www.streetevents.com. To listen to the call please go to either Web site ten minutes before the conference call is scheduled to begin. You will need to register as well as download and install any necessary audio software. The Web cast will be archived, on both Web sites, for 30 days following the call.

About Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc.

BRLI is the third largest full service laboratory based in the United States and the largest independent laboratory in the Northeastern market, primarily a clinical testing lab servicing physician offices with concentrations in the focused markets of esoteric testing, molecular diagnostic, anatomical pathology and correctional health care. GenPath is BRLI’s national oncology laboratory. Superior Science and superior technology have enabled GenPath to earn a reputation as one of the premier hematopathology laboratories in the country. GeneDx is the BRLI genetics laboratory and is typically recognized as the leading laboratory for testing of rare genetic diseases; GeneDx has now become a technology leader with GenomeDx, based on a CGH array platform and its upcoming nextgen sequence offerings that will be disease specific.

Statements included in this release that are not historical in nature, are intended to be, and are hereby identified as “forward-looking statements”. Statements looking forward in time are included in this release pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the Company’s actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance suggested herein.

www.bioreference.com

Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc.
Tara Mackay, 201-791-2600
201-791-1941 (fax)
Investor Relations Coordinator
tmackay@bioreference.com