Ron Zwanziger

Ron Zwanziger (born 1954) is an Israeli-American businessman.[1] He is best known for founding and leading the diagnostic test manufacturer Alere.

Early life and education

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Zwanziger was born in Israel in 1954 and raised on the island of Cyprus after 1956.[2][3]

He earned an engineering degree from Imperial College London in 1975 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1981.[4][2]

Career

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Medisense (1981-1991)

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Along with three business school classmates, Zwanziger co-founded Medisense Inc., a maker of glucose meters used in diabetes home care, in 1981.[3][5][2] He was CEO until 1991.[2]

Originally, the company worked on 13 disparate biotechnology ideas, hoping one or another would pay off.[3] By 1984, the company had narrowed its focus to one of the projects, which concerned electrochemical biosensors.[a][3]

In 1987, Medisense introduced the ExacTech, which was the first electrochemical biosensor-based glucose meter for home use.[6] This technology required less blood to obtain a reading, and by 2008 was used in a majority of the 6 billion home blood glucose tests being performed annually.[6] In his textbook on electrochemistry, Alan Bond of Monash University suggests that the commercial success of electrochemical home glucose monitoring "predominantly can be attributed to the introduction of the ExacTech system."[7]

Medisense was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in 1996 for $876 million.[8]

Alere (1991-2014)

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Zwanziger founded Alere Inc. (then called Selfcare Inc.),[9][4] a diagnostic test manufacturer, in 1991.[2] He was CEO until 2014.[10][11][12]

Alere's diabetes unit was sold to Johnson and Johnson (LifeScan) in 2001 for $1.3 billion.[13][9] With the 2001 acquisition of the subsidiary Unipath from Unilever, Alere became the leading manufacturer of ovulation and pregnancy tests.[3] Alere acquired Biosite Inc. in a $1.7 billion hostile takeover in 2007.[14] By 2012, Alere was the largest manufacturer in the HIV testing space, according to the nonprofit Population Services International.[15]

Abbott Laboratories acquired Alere in 2017 for $5.3 billion.[16][9] Alere's Binax-branded test line provided the basis for Abbott's widely used BinaxNow COVID-19 rapid antigen test.[17]

LumiraDx (2014-2023)

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Along with longtime partners[3] Drs. David Scott and Jerry McAleer, Zwanziger co-founded the diagnostic test manufacturer LumiraDx in 2014.[18] He was CEO until November 2023, when all three founders resigned amid "financial difficulties" at the company.[19] On December 29, 2023, LumiraDx reached a $350 million agreement to sell its key assets to Roche Diagnostics.[20]

LumiraDx produces several rapid diagnostic tests which are read by a single brick-sized device at the point of care. A 2021 presentation by Bill Gates hailed the LumiraDx platform as "amazing" and "cheaper and smaller than the diagnostic devices that came before."[21] A 2021 meta-analysis of 133 studies showed that LumiraDx's COVID-19 rapid antigen test had the highest sensitivity among 61 products.[22]

References

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  1. ^ 2 of the other projects (which concerned Dutch elm disease and metabolic engineering) had been sold or spun off, and the rest scrapped.
  1. ^ Douglas, Craig M. (11 August 2008). "Boston's barbarian?". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 28 December 2017. Sign In Required
  2. ^ a b c d e Pederson, Jay; Grant, Tina (2004). "Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc". International Directory of Company Histories. St. James Press. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Isenberg, Daniel (2006). Inverness Medical Innovations--Born Global (A). Harvard Business School Publishing.
  4. ^ a b "Ron Zwanziger: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg. May 11, 2001. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  5. ^ Worthless, Impossible and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value. Harvard Business Review Press. 2013. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-4221-8699-2. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Heller, Adam; Feldman, Ben (2008). "Electrochemical Glucose Sensors and Their Applications in Diabetes Management". Chemical Reviews. 108 (7): 2482–2505. doi:10.1021/cr068069y. PMID 18465900.
  7. ^ Bond, Alan (2002). Broadening Electrochemical Horizons: Principles and Illustration of Voltammetric and Related Techniques. Oxford University Press.
  8. ^ "Abbott Laboratories to Buy Medisense for $876 Million". The New York Times. 30 March 1996. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  9. ^ a b c Cyran, Robert (January 1, 2016). "Strategy of Alere Board Paid Off With Buyout by Abbott". The New York Times. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  10. ^ "Alere chief executive Ron Zwanziger resigns, effective immediately - The Boston Globe". bostonglobe.com. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  11. ^ "Alere Inc. CEO Zwanziger, Other Top Executives Resign In Overhaul". BioSpace. July 2, 2014. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  12. ^ "Alere's' Ex-CEO plans $3.82 billion offer for health company". www.ohio.com. December 28, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  13. ^ "J&J acquires Inverness unit - May 23, 2001". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  14. ^ "Inverness wins Biosite with bid of $1.68 billion". sandiegouniontribune.com. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  15. ^ "Actress, Activist and PSI Ambassador Debra Messing and HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway Present 2012 Impact Awards". PRWeb. Population Services International. 26 July 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2020.[dead link]
  16. ^ Ignorance, Out of (27 October 2017). "Abbott's Inviting New Allure". seekingalpha.com. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  17. ^ Pederson, Amanda (24 October 2022). "The Biggest Mistake Abbott Didn't Make". Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  18. ^ "Who We Are". LumiraDx. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  19. ^ "QuotedData's morning briefing 2 November 2023". QuotedData. 2 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  20. ^ Mirasol, Feliza (4 January 2024). "Roche to Acquire Point-of-Care Technology from LumiraDx in $350 Million Deal". BioPharm International. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  21. ^ Gates, Bill. "New tools for COVID testing". YouTube. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  22. ^ Brümmer, Lukas E.; Katzenschlager, Stephan; Gaeddert, Mary; Erdmann, Christian; Schmitz, Stephani; Bota, Marc; Grilli, Maurizio; Larmann, Jan; Weigand, Markus A.; Pollock, Nira R.; Macé, Aurélien; Carmona, Sergio; Ongarello, Stefano; Sacks, Jilian A.; Denkinger, Claudia M. (12 August 2021). "Accuracy of novel antigen rapid diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2: A living systematic review and meta-analysis". PLOS Medicine. 18 (8): e1003735. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003735. ISSN 1549-1676. PMC 8389849. PMID 34383750.
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