£1m funding will allow Omega to expand production and jobs

Medical testing kit maker Omega Diagnostics has secured £1 million from its bankers to expand manufacturing and add jobs.

The Alva-based firm said it would extend its overdraft to £1.7m, on the same terms as a £700,000 facility agreed in May. The extra money will help provide the capital investment required to scale-up manufacturing for the company’s new “CD4” test for monitoring HIV positive patients.

Omega believes the test could be a game changer, and says it has received positive feedback from experts at conferences in the US and South Africa.

Chief executive Andrew

Shepherd said: “We have

continued to build on relationships with key opinion leaders, international aid agencies and other non-governmental organisations in Africa, with further significant interest being shown in this ground-breaking product.”

Last month, the firm was awarded a regional selective assistance grant of up to £150,000 by Scottish Enterprise to help with plans to scale up manufacturing facilities to accommodate anticipated demand for the new test. In the long run, the move could create 40 jobs in Clackmannanshire.

Robin Campbell, healthcare analyst at Seymour Pierce, said CD4 was “potentially transformative for the scale and growth potential of the company”.

He said discussions at the South African conference highlighted the growing need for simple-to-use HIV-monitoring tests in remote, low-resource community healthcare settings.