Its been good news, bad news for Post Falls medical-device maker Lifestream Technologies Inc. lately.


Last month, the small maker of consumer cholesterol monitors announced that pharmacy giant Walgreen Co. had agreed to sell its devices at all of the chains more than 4,000 outlets nationwide.


A few days later, Lifestream said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had given it clearance to sell with its cholesterol monitors a health-risk assessment technology that lets consumers calculate their personal risk of heart attack, obesity, and the like.


Last week, the company announced that shipments in its fourth fiscal quarter, which ended June 30, were double what they were in the year-earlier quarter.


The series of announcements signaled important victories for the 10-year-old company, which has struggled financially at times.


The bad news, however, is that the price of Lifestreams common stock plummeted this year, to around 3 cents a share, from about 13 cents late last year.


On June 29, Lifestream issued a letter to shareholders saying the share-price drop couldnt be explained by any recent changes within the company, and asserted that Lifestream actually is in better shape today than it was 18 months ago.


The letter speculated that the fall in Lifestreams stock price might be the result of an unauthorized listing of the companys stock on the Berlin-Bremen Stock Exchange, and to rumors about possible arbitrage surrounding that listing.


Arbitrage refers to the simultaneous buying of stock on one market and selling it on another, to profit from any price differential between the two markets. In this case, arbitrage on U.S. markets might have leveraged nonexistent stock on the Berlin exchange.


While these allegations have not been verified, the company believes the potential downside of the exchange listing could be greater than any benefits being derived, the letter says. As a result, the company has sent written demand to the Berlin-Bremen Stock Exchange that it immediately cease trading the companys common stock and take whatever measures are necessary to completely delist the companys common stock from the BBSE.


Lifestream isnt the only U.S. company to have its stock listed without its approval on the Berlin-based exchange. Dozens of companies have made statements lamenting unauthorized listings of their common stock on the Berlin-Bremen. A Winston, N.C., law firm, in offering legal assistance to potential clients, says that the stock of hundreds of U.S. publicly traded companies recently has been listed on the exchange.


Christopher Maus, Lifestreams president and CEO, says he cant say thats the reason for the stocks decline, but says the companys market capitalization now is a third what it was a year and a half ago, when it was in far worse financial shape. Weve had a lot of good things happening, and well have more announcements soon, he says, adding that the stock decline remains a frustrating mystery.


As of late last week, Lifestreams stock, which is traded on the over-the-counter bulletin-board market, had regained some ground, to about 5 cents a share.


Better distribution


In its announcement June 1 that Walgreen had agreed to carry its consumer cholesterol monitors, Lifestream said the agreement meant that its monitors now would be available for sale at 25,000 retail outlets nationwide. The companys products also are carried by such chains as Rite Aid Corp., CVS Corp., Eckerd Corp., and Albertsons Inc.


Its hand-held monitors allow users to check their total cholesterol level in about three minutes and to track those findings on a credit-card-sized smart card. The monitors sell for around $100, without a smart card, though a deluxe model priced at about $130 comes compete with the smart card and a cable used to transfer data to a personal computer.


Separately, Lifestreams patented technology that the FDA recently approved for sale with the Post Falls companys monitors provides users with a health risk assessment. To get the assessment, a user conducts a cholesterol test using Lifestreams device, and also enters additional information into the device, such as the users gender, age, height, weight, diabetic status, smoker/nonsmoker, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and HDL breakout from a recent lipid profile.


The assessment the device provides shows the users projected risk of heart attack if no changes are made to alter ones behavior or lifestyle, as well as how changing those behaviors produces different outcome models.


The company says the FDA clearance came after a one-year evaluation of the scientific evidence supporting the safe and effective use of this monitor.


Lifestream, which employs about 20 people, posted a third-quarter net loss of $6.6 million. It has never posted a net profit, and has disclosed in federal securities filings that its auditors have doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern. It raised capital last fall and earlier this year, but Maus says that it likely will look to debt, rather than equity, for any additional near-term capital raising.


Lifestreams fourth-quarter earnings havent been released yet.