HEALTHCARE business Avacta is expecting growth following the relaunch of its main product.

The business, based at Thorp Arch near Wetherby, said revenue slowed to £1.15 million in the year ended January 31, from £1.72 million in the previous year while losses increased from £520,000 to £970,000 in line with expectations.

Alastair Smith, chief executive, said they had already had ten new orders for the next generation of Optim, technology which analyses small amounts of drugs in development enabling pharmaceutical companies to identify potential problems at an early stage.

He said: "Revenues for this period are below last year because Optim sales temporarily slowed as we introduced our next generation, upgraded Optim2 device, and trained up the sales team at ForteBio, the newly acquired subsidiary of our partner Pall Corporation."

The new version of Optim provides an increased profit margin for the business as well as extra features and the company's research and development spend will now be focused on affimers, reagents which can replace antibodies in medical testing, for which the company has high expectations.

He said the company had been dependent on Optim sales for the last two years, but as it also progressed its animal health testing product Sensipod, it said the company would now benefit from new revenue streams.