BioClinica, the recently renamed and rebranded Bio-Imaging Technologies, reported a 31% drop in profit for the first quarter 2009 compared with the same period last year. Net income decreased from $1.14 million, or $0.09 per diluted share, in 2008, to $786,000, or $0.05 per diluted share, for Q1 2009.

The CRO’s first quarter 2009 revenues increased 31% over the same period last year, due in large part to the acquisition of Phoenix Data Systems in March 2008, which contributed $3.7 million to BioClinica’s Q1 2009 revenues.

In early morning trading, BioClinica’s share price was down 2.26% to $3.90.

“During the quarter, we continued to experience similar trends as we did late last year, as our clients responded to the economic climate by delaying certain contract decisions and dividing other projects into small components to meet budgetary requirements,” said president and CEO Mark Weinstein in a company statement. Despite the current economic environment, our backlog of $93.3 million represented a modest improvement sequentially as compared to the $92.7 million at the end of fiscal 2008.”

BioClinica also announced yesterday plans to acquire etrials Worldwide. This acquisition is expected to have a neutral effect on earnings per share  in 2009 (excluding one-time charges related to the transaction), and the company reiterated its full-year 2009 earnings per share guidance of $0.23 to $0.25 per share. 

As a result of the expected etrials acquisition, BioClinica increased its 2009 service revenue guidance to be in the range of $65 to $70 million, up from the previous guidance of $60 to $63 million.