Medical diagnostics firm Omega has reported an increase in underlying earnings last year after signing deals to sell its tests for HIV patients in Africa.
The business based in Alva, near Alloa, grew like for like revenue by 12% to £9.82 million and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, devaluation and amortisation) from by £200,000 to £890,000.
It was prevented from making a profit by the £7.73 million one-off costs of abandoning its development of new food allergen tests, resulting in a statutory loss of £6.8 million.
But Omega said signs were positive with the company ready to produce "hundreds of thousands" of Covid-19 antibody tests for life sciences firm Mologic and the UK Rapid Test Consortium.
William Rhodes, Omega's interim chairman, said: "We believe that our outlook for the coming fiscal year is excellent - while we have decided to stop development of the allergen product lines, and the Food intolerance revenues are slowed by Covid-19, we are rapidly developing new tests, together with our partners, for Covid-19 that will need to be made and sold, ultimately, in the hundreds of thousands of units, if not millions.
"We are meeting this challenge by deploying more of our Company's resources in this area, as well as looking to expand our manufacturing capabilities to handle the tremendous increases in volume that will be needed. We see our Visitect product lines once again growing significantly as the world balances Covid-19 with the need to test patients with other life threatening, and in some cases chronic, diseases such as HIV.
"China has already demonstrated a profound ability to return to normal in many of its activities and markets, and we, together with our partner, anticipate returning to growth in food intolerance as the pandemic ebbs."
Omega's final results reported revenue increased by 1% to £9.82 million in the 12 months to March 31. During the year, its Visitect CD4 Advanced Disease test, which warns doctors of immune system deterioration in patients diagnosed with HIV, was added to the Global Fund procurement list trialled successfully by Médecins Sans Frontières in Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Zimbabwe; secured a supply agreement with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI); and received approval from the Nigerian Ministry of Health.
Sales of its food intolerance products grew 13.9% to £9.2 million, with China driving sales of Food Detective up 57% to £2.63 million and Food Print up 4% to £5.66 million.
But Omega said it was reviewing its options in the US after a partner ran into financial difficulties and facing regulatory obstacles.
It said it will continue to manufacture the 69 allergens already being produced and that the food intolerance business in China presents "significant growth opportunities".
Chief executive Colin King said: "The Covid-19 outbreak itself has provided significant short-term opportunities as we work with partners to leverage our skills to develop and manufacture both ELISA and lateral flow rapid tests to cover both antibody and antigen testing.
"We are in the process of significantly increasing capacity in both our manufacturing sites (Alva and Littleport) as part of our contribution to the UK Rapid Test Consortium to manufacture rapid antibody self-tests for the UK Government. Additionally, we have signed an agreement with Mologic to CE mark, manufacture and sell both antibody and antigen tests in two formats namely ELISA and lateral flow.
"We are, therefore, confident as we look forward that we are well positioned to deliver growth to the business."
