Randox Laboratories has made an impressive business announcement this week – from inception in 1982 the global healthcare company has now surpassed £1 billion of total sales in medical diagnostic products.

Founded by Dr. Peter FitzGerald just outside Crumlin, Co Antrim, Randox sold its first ever diagnostic blood test to Aberystwyth University Hospital.  Thirty four years later and the company has just made its billionth pound sale – highly innovative Respiratory Infection Biochips which test for multiple respiratory infections to quickly identify the most appropriate treatment – to a client in Saudia Arabia.  This technology, which is unique to Randox, not only improves antibiotic prescribing, but reduces the risk of growing antimicrobial resistance – a major global healthcare threat.

The major sales announcement was made at the company’s Global Sales Conference, being held this week in the Hilton Hotel, Templepatrick.

At this event, around 130 Randox sales representatives from across 23 different countries, including the UK and Ireland, the USA, Australia, China, France, Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica, the UAE, India, Puerto Rico, South Africa and Vietnam are gathered together in Randox’s native Northern Ireland for this notable milestone in the company’s history.

With briefings, team building and training on both current products and new capabilities about to be launched, the aim of the conference is to equip staff to increase the rate of company growth.  The conference will not only focus on product groups that advance human healthcare, such as Randox Reagents, Quality Control, Biosciences, and the RX Series Clinical Chemistry Analysers, but will also include Randox’s growing Food Diagnostics, Testing Services and Toxicology divisions.

Dr. Peter FitzGerald, Founder and Managing Director of Randox Laboratories, explained the company’s plans following the £1 billion sales announcement;

“Whilst we have clearly made our mark on the global diagnostics sector, there is much more that we want to do, to save and improve lives globally.   As such, once operational and infrastructure costs have been met, Randox reinvests all profits into further research and development and, as a result, we have more new tests in development than any other healthcare company in the world. This commitment to R&D has seen the successful development and expansion of Randox patented Biochip Array Technology – greatly improving the diagnosis of a wide range of conditions.  For example, we are currently working on the early and accurate diagnosis of a range of cancers, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Our Randox Health clinics also allow newly validated tests to make a clinical impact more quickly than would normally be achieved through routine healthcare procurement processes. Whilst there is still much to be done in this area, with our first class people, our commitment to innovation and the world class facilities we are developing at the Randox Science Park in Antrim, in Dungloe in Co Donegal, in Bangalore in India and in West Virginia in the US, we are confident that we will continue to bring our cutting-edge diagnostics to more and more people across the globe.”