Who Owns Radiometer?

Radiometer was founded in 1935 in Copenhagen, Denmark, as a manufacturer of precision measurement instruments. The company's early products included pH meters and other electrochemical measurement instruments used in laboratory and industrial applications. The name Radiometer reflects the company's origins in precision measurement, referencing the radiometer (a device that measures radiant energy) as a symbol of scientific precision.

Radiometer's pivotal contribution to medicine came in 1954, when the company introduced the world's first commercially available blood gas analyzer. The development of blood gas analysis was a critical advance in clinical medicine, enabling physicians to measure the partial pressures of oxygen (pO2) and carbon dioxide (pCO2) in arterial blood, as well as blood pH, providing essential information about a patient's respiratory and metabolic status. Before the availability of blood gas analyzers, clinicians had limited ability to assess and manage respiratory failure, metabolic acidosis, and other critical conditions that affect blood gas composition.

The 1954 Radiometer blood gas analyzer was developed in collaboration with Danish physiologist Poul Astrup, who pioneered the clinical application of blood gas measurement. Astrup's work with Radiometer established the scientific and clinical foundation for blood gas analysis as a standard of care in intensive care medicine. The Radiometer blood gas analyzer allowed clinicians to rapidly measure blood gas parameters at the bedside, enabling more precise management of mechanically ventilated patients and other critically ill patients.

Radiometer continued to innovate in blood gas analysis throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, developing successive generations of blood gas analyzers with improved accuracy, speed, and ease of use. The company expanded its product portfolio to include electrolyte analysis (measuring sodium, potassium, chloride, and other electrolytes in blood), co-oximetry (measuring hemoglobin oxygen saturation and other hemoglobin species), and glucose and lactate measurement, creating comprehensive acute care testing platforms that could measure multiple critical parameters from a single blood sample.

Radiometer's ABL series of blood gas analyzers became the company's flagship product line, with successive generations of ABL analyzers introduced over several decades. The ABL analyzers are used in hospital emergency departments, intensive care units, operating rooms, and other acute care settings where rapid blood gas and electrolyte results are essential for patient management. The ABL series is recognized globally as a leading blood gas analyzer platform, with installations in hospitals in more than 100 countries.

In 2004, Danaher Corporation acquired Radiometer, integrating it into Danaher's diagnostics portfolio. The acquisition provided Radiometer with access to Danaher's financial resources, global distribution network, and the Danaher Business System (DBS) continuous improvement methodology. Under Danaher ownership, Radiometer continued to invest in blood gas analyzer technology, developing new ABL analyzer generations with improved connectivity, automation, and analytical capabilities.

In 2013, Radiometer acquired HemoCue AB, a Swedish diagnostics company, from Quest Diagnostics for an undisclosed price. HemoCue specializes in point-of-care hemoglobin, glucose, and urine albumin testing using portable, handheld analyzers. The HemoCue acquisition expanded Radiometer's point-of-care testing portfolio beyond blood gas analysis, adding portable diagnostic capabilities for use in primary care, emergency medicine, and resource-limited settings. HemoCue analyzers are widely used in developing countries and remote settings where laboratory infrastructure is limited.

Radiometer subsequently developed the AQT90 FLEX immunoassay analyzer, a point-of-care immunoassay platform for measuring cardiac biomarkers (including troponin, BNP, and D-dimer), inflammatory markers, and other analytes in acute care settings. The AQT90 FLEX competes in the point-of-care immunoassay market with products from Abbott (i-STAT), Siemens Healthineers, and other diagnostics companies.

Radiometer has also invested in digital connectivity solutions for its blood gas analyzers, enabling integration with hospital information systems and laboratory information management systems (LIMS). Digital connectivity allows blood gas results to be automatically transmitted to patient records, reducing transcription errors and improving workflow efficiency in acute care settings.