Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American life science and clinical research company. It is a global supplier of analytical instruments, clinical development solutions, specialty diagnostics, laboratory, pharmaceutical and biotechnology services. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Thermo Fisher was formed through the merger of Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific in 2006. Thermo Fisher Scientific has acquired other reagent, consumable, instrumentation, and service providers, including Life Technologies Corporation (2013), Alfa Aesar (2015), Affymetrix (2016), FEI Company (2016), BD Advanced Bioprocessing (2018), and PPD (2021).
It ranked 106th on the Fortune 500 list based on its 2025 annual revenue of $44.556 billion.
Contents
History
Predecessors and merger
Thermo Electron was co-founded in 1956 by George N. Hatsopoulos and Peter M Nomikos. Hatsopoulos received a PhD from MIT in mechanical engineering and Nomikos was a Harvard Business School graduate. The company focused on providing analytical and laboratory products.
Fisher Scientific was founded in 1902 by Chester G. Fisher from Pittsburgh. It focused on providing laboratory equipment, chemicals, supplies and services used in healthcare, scientific research, safety, and education.
On May 8, 2006, Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific announced that they would merge in a tax-free, stock-for-stock exchange; the merged company was named Thermo Fisher Scientific, and had about 30,000 employees, and reported US$9 billion in combined revenue. On November 9, 2006, the companies announced that the merger had been completed. However, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that this acquisition was anti-competitive regarding centrifugal evaporators, requiring Fisher to divest Genevac. In April 2007, Genevac was sold to Riverlake Partners LLC and the merger closed with FTC approval.
The company's products are sold under the brand names of Thermo Scientific, Fisher Scientific, and several other recognized brand names (e.g. Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Patheon, PPD, and Nalgene).
Acquisition history
In 1990, Thermo Fisher Scientific (then known as Thermo Instrument Systems) acquired mass spectrometer manufacturer Finnigan Instrument Corporation.
In 2003, the company (then Fisher Scientific International) acquired Perbio Science, a transaction that included brands such as Pierce Biotechnology, HyClone and Endogen.
In April 2006, BioImage was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific. The merger was complete in November 2006, and technology transfer to a US site was completed during 2007 and 2008. BioImage was established in 1993 as a drug discovery research unit led by Ole Thastrup within Novo Nordisk, from which it spun out of in 1999. It had specialized in developing and selling proprietary bioassays to biopharmaceutical companies and research institutions. It made broad patents covering Enhanced GFP (EGFP), GFP-based biosensors and any genetically encoded protein fusion to a luminophore, with subsequent monitoring of the protein's translocation within a cell as the primary readout for drug discovery assays.
In December 2010, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced its acquisition of Dionex for $2.1 billion.
In May 2011, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. bought Phadia to expand into the testing of allergies and autoimmune diseases for €2.47 billion ($3.5 billion) in cash.
In April 2013, after a competitive bidding with Hoffmann-La Roche, Thermo Fisher acquired Life Technologies Corporation for US$13.6 billion in a deal, adding further service lines related to advanced DNA sequencing and genetic testing. Life Technologies was originally formed in 2008 through a $6.7B merger of Invitrogen, a cell therapy, and Applied Biosystems. The company also acquired GIBCO (Grand Island Biological Company) as part of the Life Technologies acquisition.
In February 2015, the company announced it would acquire Advanced Scientifics for $300 million in a cash-deal. ASI designs manufactures, and delivers technologies used in bioprocessing. In June 2015, the company announced its intention to acquire Alfa Aesar, a global manufacturer of research chemicals for $405 million from Johnson Matthey, and the acquisition was completed at the end of September.
Leadership
Marc N. Casper has been Chief Executive Officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific since October 2009, and was elected Chairman of the Board in February 2020. He also served as President from 2009 until March 2026. He joined the company in 2001 as President of the Life Sciences sector of Thermo Electron. Casper was named Senior Vice President in 2003, and in 2005 assumed responsibility for all of the company’s operating divisions. After the merger creating Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2006, he was named Executive Vice President and President of its Analytical Technologies business, and in 2008 he became the company’s Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to joining Thermo Fisher, Casper served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Kendro Laboratory Products. Previously, he worked for clinical diagnostics provider Dade Behring Inc., serving as President–Americas. He began his career as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company and later joined Bain Capital.
Partnerships
In September 2017, Thermo Fisher Scientific signed an agreement with the Institute of Pathology Heidelberg (IPH) to establish its Center of Molecular Pathology at Heidelberg University Hospital as the newest member of the Next Generation Sequencing Companion Dx Center of Excellence Program (COEP). The initiative focuses on establishing strategic collaborations with leading, European-based organizations that can lead studies using Thermo Fisher's Oncomine portfolio of research panels destined for development as companion diagnostics to help drive precision oncology in the region.
In 2021, Thermo Fisher announced the construction of a cell therapy development, manufacturing and collaboration center in cooperation with University of California, San Francisco on the school's Mission Bay campus.
In February 2022, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced a 15-year strategic collaboration
agreement with Moderna, Inc. The collaboration was designed to scale up the
manufacturing of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and other investigational mRNA
products.
In May 2023, Thermo Fisher partnered with Pfizer, with plans to work together on expanding testing capabilities for lung and breast cancer patients.
In November 2023, Thermo Fisher partnered with Flagship Pioneering, a biotechnology company. Together, they plan to create companies in the biotechnology field.
In January 2025, Thermo Fisher partnered with the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project (UKB-PPP) to support the world’s largest human proteomics study. Using the Olink Explore platform, UKB-PPP seeks to analyze more than 5,400 proteins from 600,000 samples to fuel the discovery of new protein biomarkers that can be used to predict, diagnose, and treat diseases.
Controversies
Xinjiang and Tibet
In February 2019, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that it would stop selling its equipment in Xinjiang. In June 2020, Thermo Fisher Scientific was reported to sell its equipment to security services in China for use in what was alleged as part of a genetic surveillance program. A report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that Thermo Fisher Scientific collaborated with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security to develop a Huaxia PCR amplification kit specifically to identify the genotypes of Uyghur, Tibetan and Hui ethnic minorities. In June 2021, The New York Times reported that, despite bans, Thermo Fisher Scientific equipment continued to be sold to police in Xinjiang.
In 2022, following reports that Thermo Fisher Scientific had sold products to police in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China called on governments to "investigate and suspend commercial activities with companies providing the PRC government with technologies to carry out biometric surveillance in the Uyghur Region, Tibet and elsewhere in the PRC, including the PRC state backed BGI Group and US firm Thermo Fisher." Thermo Fisher Scientific subsequently halted sales of DNA collection kits in Tibet.
HeLa cells
In October 2021 the estate of Henrietta Lacks sued to get past and future payment for the alleged and widely known unauthorized sale by Thermo Fisher Scientific of her HeLa cells which are essential in many types of research. Over 50 million tons of her cells have been produced and used in over 60,000 scientific studies touching virtually every realm of medicine, including the development of polio vaccines, gene mapping, in-vitro fertilization, and multitudes more.
In May 2022, it was announced Thermo Fisher Scientific went to court to seek a dismissal of the lawsuit. In late July 2023, with the motion to dismiss still outstanding, the court ordered the parties to attend a settlement conference. Soon after that, settlement of the suit, with undisclosed terms, was announced.
Mexican plant
In 2013, Opengate Capital Group LLC filed suit against Thermo Fisher Scientific for selling it a manufacturing plant controlled by the Gulf Cartel. According to Opengate Capital, the company withheld important documents and pressured employees into concealing the presence of the drug cartel.
Image manipulation
In May 2026, scientists found that a large number of images from Thermo Fisher Scientific's catalog had been manipulated, with sections of the images blanked out and duplicated with the same part of the picture copied into multiple places. The images were claimed to validate the effectiveness of antibody products which have uses including Western blots.