A long history dedicated to the service of human health…

1897: The Group’s origins
Institut Mérieux was founded by Marcel Mérieux, Louis Pasteur’s assistant, and began operations as a medical analysis laboratory. Under the leadership of Dr. Charles Mérieux, this Institute, dedicated to vaccines, set up a reagents division that was later to become BD Mérieux.

1963: Birth of BD Mérieux, specializing in diagnostics
Alain Mérieux took over the management of BD-Mérieux, in which Institut Mérieux and Becton Dickinson held a 50/50 ownership interest. The company specialized in in vitro diagnostics.

1968: BD Mérieux remains independent
Rhône-Poulenc acquired an interest in the capital of Institut Mérieux and, at the request of Becton Dickinson, Alain Mérieux bought out the shares that Institut Mérieux held in BD Mérieux.

1974: bioMérieux takes off
As Becton Dickinson had a minority interest in the capital, the company took on the new name of bioMérieux and acquired its independence internationally.

Since 1987: Reaching new dimensions

• acquisition of the French company API System, world reference in identification and manual antibiotic susceptibility testing (1987).
• acquisition of the American company VITEK Systems, world leader in automated bacteriology (1988).
• acquisition of the diagnostics unit of Organon Teknika, a division of the Akzo Nobel group (2001).

2003: bioMérieux’s 40th anniversary
bioMérieux celebrated its 40th year in the biological diagnostics business.