Abbott Laboratories is an American worldwide health care company. It has 73,000 employees and operates in more than 150 countries.The company headquarters are in Lake Bluff, Illinois. The company was founded by Chicago physician Wallace Calvin Abbott in 1888. Abbott has a broad range of branded generic pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, nutrition products, including Ensure, a line of meal replacement shakes. The company's in-vitro diagnostics business performs immunoassays and blood screening. Its medical tests and diagnostic instrument systems are used worldwide by hospitals, laboratories, blood banks, and physician offices to diagnose and monitor diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, cancer, heart failure and metabolic disorders, as well as assess other indicators of health. In 1985, the company developed the first HIV blood-screening test