MEDICAL testing company Immunodiagnostic Systems (IDS) posted strong interim results but admitted it was facing competition in its major US market.

The Boldon life sciences company, which produces manual and automated vitamin testing kits, reported a 21% rise in revenue to £27.3m for the six months to the end of September. Sales of its flagship IDS-iSYS vitamin D testing machine were up 155% year-on-year. Pre-tax profits rose by 17% to £7.7m.

Chairman Tony Martin said: “The majority of the sales growth is a direct result of both the increase in placements of IDS-iSYS Systems and the growth in revenue per system. 

“I am pleased to note that many of our larger customer accounts have migrated away from manual vitamin D testing and onto the IDS-iSYS.”

But he warned the company was set to face competition in the automated testing market, especially in the lucrative US market.

“The impending introduction of competing automated products has coincided with efforts to contain health budgets, particularly in the US,” said Martin.

“As a result we are beginning to see increasing price pressure, particularly on our larger accounts, and some very recent disruption to equipment ordering patterns which we believe will persist in the short term.

“Despite these short term pressures the overall prospects for the group are good. The recurring nature of our revenues will allow us to progress our plans to grow both organically and by acquisition where this is consistent with the group’s stated product strategy.”