". ?Û¢ Flow General, Inc. yesterday an-. timihced it will sell its Worthington I Diagnostic Systems unit to Cooper . laboratories iii exchange for $16.5 Trillion worth of Cooper stock. The ?Ûª.transaction includes the rights to .Flow?Ûªs licenses in a premising ?ÛÏartificial skin?Û? technology.</br></br>?ÛÏThis is part of our overall strategy to reduce our debt and restore -profitability,?Û? said Rod Cook, Flow ""General?Ûªs vice president of finance. f?ÛÏThe best way to reduce the debt was by divestiture.?Û? ?Û¢?ÐÊ?Û¢fin acquiring Worthington, Cooper , Ljiltjs will also acquire $34.7 million of* the company?Ûªs liabilities. That debt assumption would drop Flow General's long-term debt to about $42.3 million from $72 million.</br></br>The sa|e, which is subject to a de-Jinitive agreement, comes four months after Flow General announced its intention to sell the di-""yisibn and only 18 months i after Flow itself had acquired the company for $57.7 million.</br></br>...?ÛÏInitially, the desire was to integrate Worthington into our biomedical operations."" Cook said, ?ÛÏThat ,,didn?Ûªt happen. We would have liked . to get at leasl the original purchase price for it.?Û?</br></br>'Though Worthington revenues were estimated at roughly $32 mil-AC(,n in fiscal 1983, Flow General of-. fifeials say they ?ÛÏdon?Ûªt know?Û? whether it is operating at a profit. ?ÛÏ ?ÛÏI believe that, they have been losing money,?Û? said Parker Montgomery, chairman ofåÈ Cooper ; Laborato-, rics. a diversified medical technology company based in Palo Alto, Calif, -with annual revenues approaching $450 million. ?ÛÏWe think it?Ûªs an ex-ycellent fit for us because we can integrate it into our .operations. Because of the problems, they never had a chance to integrate into Flow.?Û?"