Strong demand for its diabetes testing machine, and a shift in its sales mix to higher margin products has more than quadrupled profits at Axis-Shield, the diagnostics group.

By the end of June, the group had sold a total of 5,000 Afinion machines, up from 4,000 machines sold at the end of 2008. Axis Shield said it remained on track to sell 2,500 new machines for the full-year, with 50 per cent of those sales in the US.