DAIICHI and SANKYO have a long history in Europe. It started back in the 1970s when a SANKYO office was opened in Basel to maintain contact with major Swiss pharmaceutical companies. In 1985, SANKYO Europe was established in Düsseldorf to coordinate clinical development activities in Europe.

In 1988, DAIICHI founded DAIICHI Pharmaceutical Europe GmbH in Düsseldorf and started pharmaceutical and fine chemicals (vitamins) business in Europe. Tranexamic acid, a hemostatic agent, was the main product in the European pharmaceutical business. In order to concentrate on the fine chemical business, DAIICHI Pharmaceutical Europe GmbH split off the pharmaceutical business in 2003 and changed the company name to DAIICHI Fine Chemical GmbH. DAIICHI also established DAIICHI Pharmaceutical UK, Ltd. in London in 1993 to coordinate their global clinical development projects.

The next milestone for SANKYO was the acquisition of Luitpold Werke in 1990. Luitpold Werke, located in Munich, Germany was founded in 1910 and developed into a mid-size European pharmaceutical company with well-known Rx and OTC products and affiliates in the major European markets except France.

In 1997, the company name changed from Luitpold to SANKYO PHARMA. With the launch of the pravastatin and cefpodoxim brands by the SANKYO European affiliates, SANKYO PHARMA became really visible on the European market.

In 2002, OLMETEC® was first launched in Germany. Laboratoires Fornet, a mid-sized French pharmaceutical company, was also acquired in that year. With the sale of the OTC products in December 2005, the focus of the DAIICHI SANKYO marketing and sales efforts in Europe is now on the primary care sector for the DAIICHI SANKYO cardiovascular, metabolic disease and infectious disease products.

As of today, DAIICHI SANKYO has its own marketing and sales offices in 12 European markets – no other Japanese pharmaceutical company has such a large number of European affiliates.