Our story began in 1945, in the immediate post-war era when much of Manila was still in ruins. The Philippines had a long road to recovery, but our founders were inspired to do their share in rebuilding a country brimming with new life and spirit.
My father, Jose Y. Campos, and his partner, Mariano K. Tan, went on to put up United Drug, a corner drugstore in the heart of Binondo. They built the company to provide quality and affordable medicines at a time of widespread healthcare scarcity. Day after day, they religiously lived out the values of husay at malasakit – going to great lengths beyond was typically required of them – to answer every call, and tend to every customer as best they could. And they did this together.
Early on in our history, our founders instilled in us the spirit of bayanihan – people coming together to work towards a common goal. Today we see bayanihan not just as a value, but rather as a way of life. It is integral to how we forge deeper and more effective relationships within and outside the company as we work ceaselessly to make the lives of our customers better. Here, no one stands alone, and nobody gets left behind.
From our beginnings nearly 75 years ago, the once corner drugstore has metamorphosed to what we now call Unilab, the leading pharmaceutical company in the country. But our story doesn’t end here. Responding to the evolving needs of our customers, we have been expanding our business into different aspects of healthcare, thus further transforming ourselves into a more wide-ranging, integrated health products-and-services enterprise.
We have indeed come a long way from what our founders started in Binondo, but we at Unilab continue to safeguard the shared values they imparted to us – bayanihan, husay at malasakit – and uphold our mission to enrich the lives of the communities we serve, and more.
Clinton Campos Hess
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
UNILAB GROUP
If you’ve heard the story of Unilab, you may have developed an appreciation for how the business has blossomed over time. But as you delve into the pages of our history, you may develop a far deeper appreciation for those who work in our front lines and behind the scenes. Over the past decades, there have been thousands of men and women whose personal legacies of husay at malasakit fill in the lines of our biography. We call them Unilab Warriors.
Our history is replete with countless stories of individuals working together, always striving for excellence, and going above and beyond the call of duty. The lives and legacies of my grandfather, JY Campos, and his good friend and partner, MK Tan, imbued them with the values of bayanihan and husay at malasakit.
With gratitude in our hearts, we stand where we are today on the shoulders of those who came before us. But what is up ahead for Unilab? Where do we go from here?
We see a future where more people are given the chance to live lives of holistic quality and good health. This vision beckons us to action and guides us to its realization. In recent years, the company has therefore taken deliberate steps to provide more than just medicines to its customers.
Today, Unilab is part of a larger enterprise, that is United Health Group, Inc., which brings to our customers greater access to prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, branded generics, wellness & natural products, personal care solutions, health services, and even animal healthcare. We view all these as interrelated and integrated offerings to address the evolving healthcare needs of the Filipino people as the Philippine economy grows.
As we continue to develop our business to keep pace with our customers’ changing requirements and preferences, we keep sight of our purpose: to enrich the lives of the communities we serve.
In pursuit of this mission, we see to it that we continuously improve how we work, including customer engagement founded on deeper insights, investments in technology in various areas of our operations, and always an unremitting commitment to quality and innovation. Just as our forefathers did in building Unilab, so will the Unilab Warriors of today shape the future of healthcare for our customers.
Through it all, we commit to care for our customers in the same way we care for our own families, and that is by making sure that in everything we do, the customer’s health comes first.
