SureScreen Diagnostics
SureScreen’s story starts over 25 years ago when forensic scientist Jim Campbell OBE realised the newly-emerging lateral flow tests (LFTs) designed in Britain for pregnancy testing provided a massive opportunity to detect other targets: illicit drugs, diseases and cancer markers etc. Jim founded Derbyshire-based SureScreen Diagnostics and collaborated with the only two other companies at that time developing LFTs, in Florida and California, sharing ideas and helping to develop new innovations. It was always the belief that early diagnostics, allowing preventative action, was much better than waiting for problems to arise. This philosophy is still at the core of SureScreen, and through providing quick, simple and cost-effective tests, which can be done by the patient in minutes, its products can have huge impacts on individuals and ultimately save people’s lives. Those early days saw the beginnings of relationships that have endured and expanded as the industry matured, making SureScreen a globally respected manufacturer of quality diagnosis tests, with many LFT products as well as urine test dip- strips being used in over half the GP surgeries across the UK. Trade was brisk, but then China increasingly dominated production of high-volume items such as pregnancy and diabetes tests due to low labour costs. This meant SureScreen evolved around innovation, with new tests being developed quickly to a high quality level and distributed into specifically targeted markets. Competing on an international stage SureScreen focused on increasing exports primarily through Europe initially and continued this
direction into new territories as the company grew, typically exporting 40% of revenue via a number of carefully chosen partners. In recent years – namely through Covid-19, when lateral flow tests became a huge part of the world’s battle against the pandemic - this has gathered momentum, with SureScreen investing heavily in robotics and automation in manufacture at its new state-of-the-art production facility in order to increase competitiveness across the product range. It has also taken on strategic new partners and distributors to help grow exports, bolstering the regulatory team to ensure products are registered quickly in new markets. New innovations, such as biodegradable LFT cassettes, have allowed further differentiation in the market, with SureScreen becoming known as the innovative leaders in this sector. As a result, exports doubled year on year, exporting to 53 countries. The speed of expansion from these activities created a lot of challenges, but SureScreen’s work has put Britain on the map as a major supplier of quality LFTs and other diagnostic tests, able to compete internationally. Traditional British values Looking ahead, SureScreen will continue to focus on the characteristics that have made the company a success and exporter over so many years. Innovating new products to help people across the world, building strong partnerships with the right support across all territories, and expanding reach into new areas across the world. British characteristics of innovation, quiet determination, honesty and integrity should never be underestimated and it has enabled Britain to not only invent LFT technology originally, but also to work so well with academia, customers and all the
SureScreen Test
Lucinda House
stakeholders in the process of manufacturing and distributing tests and helping save lives. The values that SureScreen lives by are what Britain does best – networking, helping others, bringing better ways of working, aiming for excellence and improving health outcomes. And, as the team is proving all around the world, trustworthiness and doing what they say.
SURESCREEN DIAGNOSTICS Lucinda House, Little Oak Drive, Sherwood Business Park, NG15 0DR Tel: 01332 365318 • www.surescreen.com
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