SHARES in Omega Diagnostics soared almost 8% after it was granted a patent in the United States for a key HIV testing product.

The company, based in Alva, Clackmannanshire, said it had received notice from its partner, the Burnet Institute in Australia, that the US patent was approved earlier this month.

Omega signed an exclusive licensing deal last year for the CD4 test developed by the Burnet.

Since then, Omega has been steadily investing in testing and ramping up manufacturing activities ahead of expected demand for the kit.

The test allows medical staff to tell when an HIV-positive patient's cell count falls below a certain level, meaning that antiretroviral therapy may need to be started.

While most CD4 testing can take two weeks to be processed in laboratories, the Omega test can produce results in 40 minutes from a blood sample taken from a fingertip.

That means it is suited to being used in the field and in places where access to medical testing facilities is limited.

Omega said it has already been granted patents in South Africa and the 16 member states of the African Intellectual Property Organisation.

Patents are said to be pending in many other places around the world.

Andrew Shepherd, Omega chief executive, said: "We are delighted to learn of this US patent award, extending the patent protection which already exists for our novel CD4 point-of-care test, and which is testimony to the years of hard work done by our colleagues at the Burnet Institute in partnership with others."

Mr Shepherd confirmed the granting of the US patent will not accelerate the commercial launch of CD4, although that is still pencilled in for the end of this year.

While Omega has received interest from US distributors interested in CD4, Mr Shepherd said the focus remains on targeting lower-resourced countries where the demand for point-of-care testing is the greatest.

He said: "The granting of the US patent protects the [intellectual property] status and prevents competition from US-based companies competing in this technology."

Earlier this month, Omega signalled it was likely to record a 1.3% rise in revenue to £11.3 million in the 12 months to March this year.

However, it said profits were likely to be down from £1m to £800,000, due to lower demand for allergy testing and restructuring charges.

Shares in Omega ended the day up 1.25p at 17.5p.