Lancaster Laboratories
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lancaster Laboratories Inc., is one of the largest contract laboratories in the United States. They specialize in pharmaceutical and environmental analytical services.[1]
The company employs 750 employees in a 175,000-square-foot (16,300 m²) facility near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 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.[1]
[edit] History
Lancaster Laboratories[2] was founded by Dr. Earl H. Hess in 1961 as a 2,500-square-foot (230 m²) lab with three employees, intending to provide analytical services to area agribusinesses and industries.[3]
The company claims several distinctions:
- They were the first laboratory accredited by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation[3]
- They prepared the first qualifications manual in the lab industry and implemented a total quality management system in 1989[3]
- They pioneered computerized laboratory information management systems in the 1970s and designed a model automated system for retrieval and storage of samples — the only laboratory to have such a system[3]
- The company has been on Working Mother magazine's list of "Best Companies for Working Mothers" 11 times since 1989.[3]
Dr. Hess retired in 1995, selling Lancaster Laboratories to Thermo TerraTech.[3] The company was again sold in 2000 to Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison and yet again in August 2005 to Fisher Scientific.[4]
Dr. J. Wilson Hershey serves as president of the company.[5]
