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

Early life and education

Zwanziger was born in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in 1954 and raised on the island of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

after 1956. He earned an engineering degree from

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

in 1975 and an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

in 1981.

Career

Medisense (1981-1991)

Along with three business school classmates, Zwanziger co-founded Medisense Inc., a maker of

glucose meter A glucose meter, also referred to as a "glucometer", is a medical device for determining the approximate concentration of glucose in the blood. It can also be a strip of glucose paper dipped into a substance and measured to the glucose chart. ...

s used in

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

home care, in 1981. He was CEO until 1991. Originally, the company worked on 13 disparate biotechnology ideas, hoping one or another would pay off. By 1984, the company had narrowed its focus to one of the projects, which concerned electrochemical biosensors. In 1987, Medisense introduced the ExacTech, which was the first electrochemical biosensor-based glucose meter for home use. 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. In his textbook on

electrochemistry Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between Electric potential, electrical potential difference and identifiable chemical change. These reactions involve Electron, electrons moving via an electronic ...

, Alan Bond of

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

suggests that the commercial success of electrochemical home glucose monitoring "predominantly can be attributed to the introduction of the ExacTech system." Medisense was acquired by

Abbott Laboratories Abbott Laboratories is an American multinational medical devices and health care company with headquarters in Abbott Park, Illinois, in the United States. The company was founded by Chicago physician Wallace Calvin Abbott in 1888 to formulate k ...

in 1996 for $876 million.

Alere (1991-2014)

Zwanziger founded Alere Inc. (then called Selfcare Inc.), a diagnostic test manufacturer, in 1991. He was CEO until 2014. Alere's diabetes unit was sold to

Johnson and Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and Medical device, medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publi ...

(

LifeScan LifeScan, Inc. is a diagnostic systems manufacturer with products focusing on the diabetes market, specifically blood glucose monitoring systems. History LifeScan was established in 1981. It was acquired by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in 1986, and i ...

) in 2001 for $1.3 billion. With the 2001 acquisition of the subsidiary Unipath from

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

, Alere became the leading manufacturer of

ovulation Ovulation is an important part of the menstrual cycle in female vertebrates where the egg cells are released from the ovaries as part of the ovarian cycle. In female humans ovulation typically occurs near the midpoint in the menstrual cycle and ...

and

pregnancy tests A pregnancy test is used to determine whether a person is pregnant or not. The two primary methods are testing for the pregnancy hormone (human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)) in blood or urine using a pregnancy test kit, and scanning with ultras ...

. Alere acquired Biosite Inc. in a $1.7 billion

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (law), company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast t ...

in 2007. By 2012, Alere was the largest manufacturer in the

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

testing space, according to the nonprofit

Population Services International Population Services International (PSI) is a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit organization, nonprofit global health organization that began as an international not-for-profit provider of contraception and safe abortion services, and has evolved int ...

. Abbott Laboratories acquired Alere in 2017 for $5.3 billion. Alere's Binax-branded test line provided the basis for Abbott's widely used BinaxNow

COVID-19 rapid antigen test COVID-19 rapid antigen tests or RATs, also frequently called COVID-19 lateral flow tests or LFTs, are rapid antigen tests used to detect Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19). They are quick to implemen ...

LumiraDx (2014-2023)

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

Roche Diagnostics F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche (), is a Swiss multinational holding healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on ...

. LumiraDx produces several rapid diagnostic tests which are read by a single brick-sized device at the

point of care Clinical point of care (POC) is the point in time when clinicians deliver healthcare products and services to patients at the time of care. Clinical documentation Clinical documentation is a record of the critical thinking and judgment of a health ...

. A 2021 presentation by

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

hailed the LumiraDx platform as "amazing" and "cheaper and smaller than the diagnostic devices that came before." A 2021 meta-analysis of 133 studies showed that LumiraDx's COVID-19 rapid antigen test had the highest sensitivity among 61 products.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwanziger, Ron 1954 births Living people American businesspeople Harvard Business School alumni Businesspeople from Tel Aviv Israeli emigrants to the United States