A SHARED VISION

Over a century in the service of global public health

The commitment of the Mérieux family to work in the field of biology goes back to 1897, with the establishment by Marcel Mérieux, a pupil of Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux, of Institut Mérieux. This marks the start of an extraordinary adventure in both biology and industry, which was to have a profound impact on vaccinology and on in vitro diagnostics at the global level.

Initially under the direction of Doctor Charles Mérieux and later of Alain Mérieux, Institut Mérieux was to become a world leader in the field of human and veterinary vaccines. It gave birth to many bodies which are still major players today in the public health arena:

• In human medicine, Pasteur Mérieux Connaught which later became Aventis Pasteur and then Sanofi Pasteur;
• In veterinary medicine, IFFA (Institut Français de Fièvre Aphteuse) which became Rhône Mérieux, and later Merial.

In parallel to this work on vaccines, in 1963 Alain Mérieux set up bioMérieux to work on in vitro diagnostics.

The family's corporate holding was later enlarged through the acquisition of Transgene, working in immunotherapy, and then the American industrial control company Silliker, followed by ABL (a North American company researching into virology).

The name of Mérieux Alliance was chosen to reflect the full scope of these activities. Under the impetus of Alain Mérieux and his sons, Christophe, Rodolphe and Alexandre, the group developed further, fostering a policy of scientific innovation and international openness by developing a network of sites all over the world.