The company offered products and services to over 350,000 customers located in approximately 150 countries including pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, secondary and higher education institutions, hospitals and medical research institutions, and quality control, process control and research and development laboratories.

The company was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1902 by Chester Garfield Fisher (1881–1965), originally called the "Scientific Materials Co.".

Early products included microscopes, burets, pipettes, litmus, balances, colorimeters, dissecting kits, and anatomical models.

[2] The company manufactured an electric-combustion furnace and combustion train for analyzing carbon levels in steel, and an electrically heated and thermostatically controlled bacteriological incubator.

Operating as a subsidiary of Allied Corporation (and later AlliedSignal Inc., and The Henley Group), Fisher established a Biotechnology Division in 1985.

[3] In the 1990s, Fisher, with partner Intertech Corporation of Atkinson, New Hampshire, set up a pharmaceutical testing and certification lab in Moscow, Russia, to serve with the Russian Federation's Ministry of Health and Medical Industry needs.

Fisher acquired Eastman Kodak Company's organic-chemicals business and Janssen Chimica, forming Acros Organics.

[citation needed] In May 2006, Fisher Scientific and Thermo Electron announced that they would merge in a tax-free, stock-for-stock exchange.