Shares in Axis-Shield climbed almost 4% at one point yesterday after the Scottish-Norwegian maker of medical diagnostic kits announced it had been granted a Japanese patent for its laboratory tests for diagnosing and monitoring rheumatoid arthritis.

Shares in Axis-Shield climbed almost 4% at one point yesterday after the Scottish-Norwegian maker of medical diagnostic kits announced it had been granted a Japanese patent for its laboratory tests for diagnosing and monitoring rheumatoid arthritis.

The company, which has dual headquarters in Dundee and Oslo, said the new patent for use of cyclic citrullinated peptides (CCP) complemented a more specific patent already granted and now means the test has strong global protection, with similar patents in Europe and the US.

Axis-Shield, which makes diagnostic systems for doctors' offices and other points of care, says its anti-CCP test is more accurate than rival early-diagnostic tests for rheumatoid arthritis conditions.

Shares in the company, formed in 1999 through the merger of Dundee-based Shield Diagnostics and Norwegian competitor Axis, later fell back to close 0.18%, or 0.5p, higher at 285p.

The current market for anti-CCP tests is estimated at more than four million tests per year, growing at more than 20% per annum. The test has also been incorporated into European guidelines for diagnosing early rheumatoid arthritis and is now reimbursed in all major European markets, the US and Japan.