Heinrich Wieland and Boehringer Ingelheim
The German chemist Heinrich Otto Wieland was born on July 4, 1877 in Pforzheim, a small town in Southern Germany.
He studied chemistry at the Munich University, where he received his doctorate in 1901. In Munich, he held a chair for chemistry until his retirement in 1952. His work, published in more than 400 manuscripts, delivered highly important contributions to the structural organic chemistry and biochemistry. One of his major interests was the investigation on bile acids and related compounds, for which studies he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1927. Moreover, he received further awards, e.g. the Goethe Medal for art and science as well as the Otto Hahn Prize of the Society of German Chemists (GDCh).
Prof. Heinrich Otto Wieland and his brother Prof. Hermann Wieland, a pharmacologist, were cousins of Helene Boehringer, the wife of Albert Boehringer, founder of Boehringer Ingelheim. In 1915, close cooperation began between Boehringer Ingelheim and the Wieland brothers. Based on their research results in 1917, the production of bile acid, the basis for manufacturing Perichol® and Cadechol® was initiated. These drugs were launched in the early 1920s as medication for treating chronic cardiovascular diseases.
During this time, the cooperation between Prof. Heinrich Wieland and Dr Robert Boehringer, a nephew of Albert Boehringer, Boehringer Ingelheim's "Scientific Department" was founded in 1917 dedicated to innovative research. This department, starting with 4 employees in the early 1920s, built the basis for the pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) activities at Boehringer Ingelheim.
Later in the 1920s, Heinrich Wieland discontinued advising Boehringer Ingelheim. But the Scientific Department expanded and gained increasingly in importance. Because of the growth of the research activities at Boehringer Ingelheim, a building named after Heinrich Wieland was constructed in 1938. This building still recalls this fruitful and successful cooperation between the scientist Heinrich Wieland and the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim.
Thus, it was a good opportunity for Boehringer Ingelheim to take over as sponsor when in 2000 the Margarine Institute gave up its sponsorship of the Heinrich Wieland Prize. Boehringer Ingelheim welcomed this new challenge as sponsor of the Heinrich Wieland Prize.
