Based On Tradition,
Yet Committed To The Future

In 1947, Dr. John Elliott, director of the Dade County (Florida) Blood Bank, succeeded in reducing the incubation time for a blood group from 1 hour to 2 minutes. He developed the first commercially available reagents for typing and grouping blood with the brand name Dade^®. The new, fast reacting test sera represented a major breakthrough and were so successful from the very beginning that the demand soon outgrew the capacity of the blood bank.

Therefore, in 1949 Dr. Elliott founded "Dade Reagents Inc." to manufacture test sera. While in Europe he made the acquaintance of Walter Merz, a doctor of chemistry from Bern. The two became friends and, recognizing the enormous need for the reagents in Europe, they decided to work together.

In 1950, Dr. Merz opened his first production facility in an old Swiss cottage, from where he began to introduce the new Dade test sera on the "old" continent.

The foundation of the company Merz + Dade AG in Bümpliz/ Bern happened in December 1955.

In 1960 started the manufacturing of Red Blood Cell products (e.g. Sero-Cyte^®, Reverse-Cyte^®, etc.)

In 1970, American Hospital Supply acquired Merz & Dade AG and the move to Düdingen in 1977 resulted in a massive expansion of manufacturing.

In 1986, Baxter Travenol acquired American Hospital Supply and in 1988 the name changed from Merz & Dade AG to Baxter Dade AG.

In 1990, the reorganization and formation of a diagnostics division resulted in the new name of Baxter Diagnostics AG.

In 1991, the manufacturing site Düdingen obtained the FDA License and in 1993, the ISO 9001 Certification took place.

In December 1994, the American finance group Bain Capital and Goldman & Sachs acquired the diagnostic group from Baxter and in 1995, with the start of the Stand-Alone process, the name changed to Dade AG.

In October 1997, Dade International and Behring Diagnostics completed their merger by creating the independent Dade Behring Inc.

In February 2001, Dr. Schmidt Biotech acquired the Immunohematology business from Dade Behring and founded the new company Medion Diagnostics GmbH, in order to continue this business.

In June 2001, Medion Diagnostics GmbH completed the activities transfer and started to operate.

In 2002 a new research and development program has been initiated and simultaneously a new research and development facility was built up in Berlin, Germany.

In May 2005 Medion Diagnostics International was established in Miami, Florida to expand the distribution of Medion products in the Americas.

In October 2005 a Management Buy-out took place and the company is currently being managed by Dr. Peter Schwind.

In May 2008, Medion Diagnostics International is certified by the Florida Regional Minority Business Council, meeting criterias by the National Minoirty Supplier Development Council, and qualifies as a Minority Business Enterprise.