Eurofins Scientific was founded in 1987 to market the SNIF-NMR technology, a patented analytical method used to verify the origin and purity of several types of food and beverages in cases where traditional testing methods would fail to detect a sophisticated fraud. Within a 20-year period, the Group has grown from a start-up company with 12 employees to become an international network of over 150 laboratories located in Europe, the USA, Asia and South-America employing about 8,000 staff. With a portfolio of over 25,000 reliable analytical methods and performing more than 80 million assays per year to establish the safety, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability, identity and purity of biological substances, the Eurofins Group is now a leading global provider of bioanalytical services. Eurofins is one of the fastest growing companies in Europe: since its IPO on the French stock exchange in 1997, Eurofins’ sales have increased by more than 50% each year (in compound average) to € 633 m in 2008. The shares of Eurofins Scientific are traded on NYSE Euronext Paris and Deutsche Börse/XETRA (Frankfurt). Eurofins belongs to the following indices: NYSE Euronext SBF 250, Next150, Next Biotech, SRD and Compartiment B.