Boehringer Ingelheim was established in 1885 in Ingelheim, a scenic town on the Rhine in Germany. The company was named after Mr. Albert Boehringer, the founder, and the town itself. The company branched out into the prescription medicines industry on a large scale in 1905. Now, 100-odd years after its foundation, the company has become one of the top twenty pharmaceutical companies in the world, having 144 affiliated companies in 45 countries throughout the world and about 36,000 employees. The company is actively engaged in prescription medicines, the consumer health care business, and the animal health care business (medicines for animals) and its sales in fiscal 2004 were about approximately 10 billion dollars.

Regarding Japan as a promising market comparable with markets in America and Europe, in 1955 the company contracted Tanabe Seiyaku Co., Ltd. to be its general agent for marketing Buscopan, an antispasmodic. In 1961, Nippon C.H. Boehringer Sohn Co., Ltd. was formally established (the company name was changed to Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim in 1982). Mr. Toyoshima says in retrospect, "The first step for a foreign-affiliated company is to sign a contract with a sales agent in the country into which it plans to expand its business, and then it establishes a marketing base based on the results of its research into the needs of the market. In those days, marketing activities were conducted by the Boehringer Section within the Tanabe Seiyaku organization."

Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim has its head office in Kawanishi City in Hyogo Prefecture, research institutes including the Kawanishi Pharma Research Institute, twelve marketing bases in Sapporo, Sendai, and other sites, and factories in Yamagata and Toride. The company is engaged in research, development, import, and marketing of prescription medicines. It has an operating income of 102.5 billion yen, approximately 932 million dollars, (in the fiscal year ended March 2005) and has 1,699 employees (as of January 1, 2005).

Thinking that it was necessary to establish a production base in order to satisfy the needs of the Japanese market, and to expand its market share, the company entered a business tie-up with San-A Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and with its production equipment established the Yamagata Factory in 1986. In 2002, work being done at the Hino Factory (in Shiga Prefecture) was shifted to the Yamagata Factory, in order to establish an integrated system for production, packaging, and distribution. Mr. Toyoshima said, "Before the integration, bulk shipment imported from Germany was packed in packaging materials at the Hino Factory. In order to rationalize the business, we carried out the project to transfer the functions of the Hino Factory to the Yamagata Factory."

Yamagata Factory is equipped with the latest manufacturing facilities that incorporate the most advanced technologies. It produces about two billion tablets and capsules for prescription medicines every year. The factory conforms not only to Japanese GMP (the Good Manufacturing Practice) but also to the strict quality standards established by the Group. Quality guarantees are carried out daily in the factory to check that the production line conforms to the standards, and daily quality control tests are carried out on finished products. Entry to the factory is strictly controlled. Every person entering the factory must don a special suit that meets strict sanitary standards before entering the production area called the "Red Zone," where the air purity is at the highest level in the factory. In this way, quality control is enforced using a double-stage or triple-stage method.

Mr. Toyoshima, Manager of the Yamagata Factory, confidently says, "Out of all the factories in the Boehlinger-Ingelheim Group worldwide, the Yamagata Factory is the only one that can manufacture prescription medicines that satisfy the needs of the Japanese market. Japanese consumers make claims even for small cracks in pills. The bigger the pills are, the lower the density of the primary medicine, and the easier the production methods are. On the other hand, it is more difficult to manufacture smaller pills that need to be coated with small amounts of milk sugar or starch. Small pills coated using fine techniques are highly evaluated by overseas manufacturers. Yamagata Factory meets Japanese needs with advanced technologies that allow us to manufacture medicines suitable for the Japanese consumer."

Two hundred employees work at the Yamagata Factory (as of April 1, 2005). Mr. Toyoshima says, "Because they are engaged in the production of prescription medicines, they are required to keep strictly to the quality control manuals. They understand the importance of this and work sincerely and with concentration. In addition to having people with the will to work well, Yamagata Prefecture is blessed with an outstanding natural environment suitable for a pharmaceuticals factory, and Yamagata Shinkansen Railway and Yamagata Airport are close by."
Sales of Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim exceed the total sales of products manufactured in the Group factories in the home country of Germany, and are ranked next to the sales of the Group company in America. Mr. Toyoshima said, "We believe that our high abilities in product development and advanced technologies will produce excellent results in overseas markets. Although we are no match for some countries such as Indonesia in cost, we will continue to improve the product quality and expand our business into overseas markets." The base of the company’s global business is, as a matter of course, the Yamagata Factory.