Boehringer Ingelheim Seiyaku (Headquarters: Higashine-shi, Yamagata, president: Dr Gerhard Gigl) and Haupt Pharma announced today, that Boehringer Ingelheim Seiyaku, Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim’s 100% subsidiary company, would de-merge and divest its Toride plant to Haupt Pharma, one of the leading contract manufacturers for pharmaceutical products in Europe, is aiming at expanding its business in the Japanese market.

The contract was signed as of 10th October 2006. The Toride plant is one of two production arms of Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim, specifically focusing on ampoule production. Effective January 2007, the Toride plant, under the ownership and management of Haupt Pharma, will continue the supply to Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim with current ampoule products consistent with past practice. All employees working for the Toride plant will continue to work at there under Haupt Pharma’s management and the continuation of their employment has been contractually secured.

Boehringer Ingelheim Group has been continuously seeking ways to enhance its operational efficiency amongst others by streamlining its operational structure. The decision to sell Toride plant to Haupt Pharma was made to secure the future of Toride plant and provide a development perspective to its employees supported by a collaboration partnership between Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim and the buyer of the plant taking it into consideration that the share of ampoule products amongst the company’s product portfolio is decreasing. While Toride plant is to be divested, Yamagata plant, positioned as one of the Global Strategic Plant of Boehringer Ingelheim group of companies, will remain part of the
Boehringer Ingelheim Group, producing and supplying Nippon Boehringer
Ingelheim with solid dosage forms.

Haupt Pharma, one of the leading contract manufacturers for
pharmaceutical products in Europe, is aiming at expanding its business in the Japanese market. The acquisition of the Toride Plant will serve as a strategic platform to enhance Haupt Pharma’s access to the Japanese market by a team acting in the same language, culture and time zone as its Japanese clients. Haupt Pharma intends to expand the productions at the Toride Plant by establishing contract manufacturing business on top of theproducts being supplied to Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim.

Profile of Toride plant of Boehringer Ingelheim Seiyaku:

Toride Plant was built for exclusive production of injection drugs. The plant is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities such as those for high-level water purification, air cleaning, and automated liquid mixing, which assure far more than just meeting Japanese GMP.

Toride Plant has a newly developed micro-wave continuous sterilizer which enables it to make completely automated continuous manufacture of ampoule products for the first time in the world. The tests necessary in the process of manufacturing are also all mechanized and incorporated into the robotic system, enhancing the assurance of high quality and high productivity of production.