History A Look Back at the Past 40 Years ABC Laboratories was founded in 1968 by University of Missouri Professor Emeritus Dr. Charles Gehrke, along with two MU graduate students, Drs. David Stalling and James Ussary. In the beginning, the company's primary business was providing contract analytical services for determining amino acid profiles in food and feeds to the agricultural industry. ABC Laboratories entered the marketplace with a breakthrough development in automated chemical analysis, a process that enabled analyses of 40 laboratory samples per hour, compared to the 20 samples per day previously possible with manual processes. In the early 1970's, the company actually manufactured the analytical equipment used in its laboratory, first with the introduction of its GPC Autoprep Gel Permeation Chromatograph, and later with a Model 600 Autovap Automated Evaporation/Concentration system and an enhanced GPC Autoprep Model 1002B, which offered auto-loading capabilities. During that time, the company was also expanding its analytical testing services, adding pesticide residue analysis and aquatic bioassay testing, environmental fate studies, domestic animal residue and metabolism studies, as well as human clinical studies and biopharmaceutical analysis. In 1993, the company established a CGMP-compliant Analytical group to focus on the Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) needs of the pharmaceutical industry. Today, the method development, sample testing and identification/characterization work done in our CGMP Analytical group represents our largest business segment. Over the past 40 years, ABC Laboratories has evolved to meet the changing technical and regulatory needs of its customers. But at its heart is the same expertise on which the company is founded: analytical chemistry. Our 360-plus scientists and support personnel come to work each day to identify, quantify and measure the impact of exploratory compounds on biological and environmental systems... supporting the development of safe, effective products that ultimately improve human lives.