Unipath Ltd was a

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate sympto ...

, subsidiary to

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

and then

Alere Alere Inc. was a global manufacturer of rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests. The company was founded in 1991 and was headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. As of January 2017, the company had a market capitalization of $3.47 billion with an en ...

, specialising mainly in medical diagnostic kits related to women's reproductive health. It subsequently diversified its product range to include more specialised test kits, primarily for the clinical market, in areas other than women's reproductive healthcare. Based in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

, United Kingdom, the company had between 500 and 600 employees globally. Unipath's main assets were folded into

Swiss Precision Diagnostics Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH is a Swiss medical diagnostic company, that produces Clearblue-branded pregnancy testing equipment. History The company was formed as a 50/50 joint venture (JV) between Alere (concerning the division Unipath, whic ...

History

Unipath was formed in 1984 by the

group. In 1985 they released and started to manufacture the first in their line of home pregnancy test kits marketed under the

Clearblue Clearblue is a brand of Swiss Precision Diagnostics that offers consumer home diagnostic products such as pregnancy tests, ovulation tests and fertility monitors. Product history Clearblue was introduced in 1985 with the launch of the first ...

brand. The name is related to the fact that the test produced a blue marker line as a positive (pregnant) result and that it is 'clear' and simple to use. The product was a success, in part due to intensive advertising and held a majority market share in the UK by the end of the year. Unipath released their clearplan home ovulation kit in 1987. The kit was designed for use in identifying the period of peak fertility in a prospective mother's

menstrual cycle The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that make pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of eggs a ...

so that the optimal time for insemination leading to conception could be determined. In 1996 Unipath released a complementary product, the Persona

fertility monitor Fertility testing is the process by which fertility is assessed, both generally and also to find the "fertile window" in the menstrual cycle. General health affects fertility, and STI testing is an important related field. Women Healthy women ...

, designed to identify fertile and infertile periods in the

. Identification of fertile and infertile days is known as

fertility awareness Fertility awareness (FA) refers to a set of practices used to determine the fertile and infertile phases of a woman's menstrual cycle. Fertility awareness methods may be used to avoid pregnancy, to achieve pregnancy, or as a way to monitor gynec ...

, and may be used as birth control or to help achieve pregnancy. Unipath continued to make improvements to its fertility-related products over the years, improving their convenience and reliability of use. Refinements included a urine collector strip on their Clearblue pregnancy test that turns pink to indicate proper urine absorption, thus reducing the chance of a false-negative test by improper use. A later refinement also replacing the simple blue line indicator with an LCD display that clearly indicates the result, reducing the chance of the test line being misinterpreted by people unaccustomed to using medical test kits. In 2001 Unilever sold the company to the

(then Inverness Medical Innovations Group). The company has since diversified its products considerably, offering a greater range of test kits for strictly clinical usage. These include tests for

Respiratory syncytial virus Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), also called human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) and human orthopneumovirus, is a common, contagious virus that causes infections of the respiratory tract. It is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus. ...

Hepatitis B Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the ''Hepatitis B virus'' (HBV) that affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. It can cause both acute and chronic infection. Many people have no symptoms during an initial infection. Fo ...

and

chlamydia infection Chlamydia, or more specifically a chlamydia infection, is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Chlamydia trachomatis''. Most people who are infected have no symptoms. When symptoms do appear they may occur only several we ...

s, as well as blood chemistry test kits designed to aid diagnosis of

myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may ...

and

deep vein thrombosis Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a type of venous thrombosis involving the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs or pelvis. A minority of DVTs occur in the arms. Symptoms can include pain, swelling, redness, and enla ...

. Most of these tests employ adaptions of unipath's in-house developed technology and patents thereof. In part, the diversification of the company's range of products in recent years is in anticipation of its original patents expiring, opening it to competition from companies that may use the same technology. In 1994, Unipath released its own range of

vitamin supplements A vitamin is an organic molecule (or a set of molecules closely related chemically, i.e. vitamers) that is an essential micronutrient that an organism needs in small quantities for the proper functioning of its metabolism. Essential nutrie ...

for both pregnant and

breastfeeding Breastfeeding, or nursing, is the process by which human breast milk is fed to a child. Breast milk may be from the breast, or may be expressed by hand or pumped and fed to the infant. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that br ...

women, released under the Clearblue brand in synergy with its successful pregnancy test kit. In 2007, Clearblue and other brands were folded into

(SPD) as a 50/50 joint venture between Alere and

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

. The Unipath subsidiary was subsequently phased out by Alere. The Bedford main office of the former Unipath operates as a part of SPD under the name Clearblue Innovation Centre.

References

External links

Unipath
{{Pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom Pharmaceutical companies of the United Kingdom Pharmaceutical companies established in 1984

History

See also

References

External links