Alba Bioscience, the recently privatised former commercial arm of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, has secured a £10.7m investment to help expand the company's product portfolio and to create 16 research and development jobs.

The investment includes a £1.8m R&D grant from Scottish Enterprise, that was announced by Enterprise Minister Jim Mather yesterday during a visit to the headquarters of Edinburgh-based Alba.

The remainder of the investment has come from Cambridge parent company Quotient BioResearch, which acquired Alba a year ago for an undisclosed sum.

A spokesman for Alba's technology-based business focused on the manufacture and sale of blood-typing reagents and systems worldwide, described the Quotient cash as an "initial investment", signalling the likelihood of further expansion at Liberton, where Alba is based in the south of Edinburgh.

Alba is one of the success stories in Scotland's often-checkered life sciences sector.

The company, which has become a global leader in the manufacture of monoclonal blood grouping products, has expanded rapidly after its privatisation from the NHS last year and it now reaps 70% of its sales from overseas markets, primarily North America and Europe.

A major milestone was achieved when clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration was received last year to sell some of its products into the highly lucrative US market.

Canadian regulators also recently granted the company approval for a number of its products.

The company's wide-ranging product portfolio includes contract manufacturing services in cryo preservation, freeze drying as well as antibody production. A spokesman said Alba was also now gaining a strong foothold in China.

John Allan, Alba's chief executive, said: "Some of the key factors of this award will be the creation and safeguarding of new research and development jobs, that will enhance our current scientific skill base and assist our growth.

"This strengthens the company's contribution to the economy locally and in the development of Scotland's expertise in the life science arena."

A spokesman for the company said the 16 new jobs would be created over a two-year period, taking the headcount to more than 90.