Lancaster Laboratories Inc., is one of the largest contract laboratories in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. They specialize in pharmaceutical

Pharmaceutical sciences

The pharmaceutical sciences are a group of interdisciplinary areas of study involved with the design, action, delivery, disposition, and use of drugs...

  and environmental analytical services.

The company employs 750 employees in a 175000 square feet (16,258 m²) facility near Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...

. Annual sales are $70 million. Their clients include businesses, industries, and consultants in more than 30 countries, including 19 of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

History

Lancaster Laboratories was founded by Dr. Earl H. Hess in 1961 as a 2500 square feet (232.3 m²) lab with three employees, intending to provide analytical services to area agribusinesses and industries.

The company claims several distinctions:

• They were the first laboratory accredited by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation
• They prepared the first qualifications manual in the lab industry and implemented a total quality management
  Total Quality Management
  Total quality management or TQM is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes....
  
   system in 1989
• They pioneered computerized Laboratory Information Management System
  Laboratory Information Management System
  Sometimes known as a laboratory information system or laboratory management system , a laboratory information management system is a software-based laboratory and information management system that offers a set of key features that support a modern laboratory's operations...
  
  s in the 1970s and designed a model automated system for retrieval and storage of samples — the only laboratory to have such a system
• The company has been on Working Mother magazine's list of "Best Companies for Working Mothers" 11 times since 1989.

Dr. Hess retired in 1995, selling Lancaster Laboratories to Thermo TerraTech. The company was again sold in 2000 to Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison and yet again in August 2005 to Fisher Scientific

Fisher Scientific

Fisher Scientific International, Inc. was a biotechnology company that provided products and services to the global scientific research and United States clinical laboratory markets...

.. Fisher Scientific was acquired by Thermo Electron in 2007 to form Thermo Fisher Scientific. Eurofins Scientific

Eurofins Scientific

Eurofins is an international group of laboratories providing testing and support services to the pharmaceutical, food, environmental and consumer products industries and to governments...

acquired the company in 2011.

Dr. J. Wilson Hershey serves as president of the company.