The company was founded in Parma in 1935 when Giacomo Chiesi, a chemist who dreamed of doing research, bought the Laboratorio Farmaceutico Parmense and embarked on his entrepreneurial adventure.
In the early forties the laboratory started to expand and sell it's products abroad, exporting drugs to Eritrea and Austria. However, in 1944 the war broke out and part of the company was destroyed during a bombing raid, bringing all activities to a stop until the war ended.
When the laboratory resumed it's activities, the first scientific collaborator was hired and Chiesi launched it's first penicillin-based ointment. At the time, Giacomo Chiesi was considering buying some land to build a real factory. The new pharmaceutical factory was launched in 1955, had 50 employees and manufactured an extensive range of successful drugs.
In 1966 Giacomo Chiesi handed over the management of the company to his two sons Alberto and Paolo. Chiesi Farmaceutici was a small company at that time, yet already looking towards international markets.
Alberto and Paolo started a continuous expansion and internationalisation process by opening the first office abroad, in Brazil in the late seventies. 1979 represented a significant turning point with the launch of Clenil®, a inhaled corticosteroid indicated for asthma, allergic rhinitis and airway inflammation. Clenil is a successful drug, especially in a market where effective treatments for such diseases are so few and it lead the way for Chiesi Farmaceutici’s commitment to respiratory diseases.
Following the success of Clenil, Chiesi’s interest extended to the anti-inflammatory and pain killer areas and in 1989 the company launched Brexin®, that was soon marketed in over 60 countries, certified for the United States market, with an international patent. Almost ten years after the Brazilian adventure, the Group’s international expansion is very strong, both in the European and non-European countries. The Group’s historical products, focussing on the respiratory and cardiovascular therapeutic areas, continue to be well-established, and new products for neonatal diseases, musculoskeletal and vascular disorders have also been launched.
The third Chiesi generation joined the company between the end of the second and the beginning of the third millennium, at different times and with different roles: Alessandro, Andrea, Giacomo and Maria Paola. Their input opened up new lines of research and development: resulting in Foster® and NEXTHaler®.
The history of Chiesi is the story of a personal dream that became a joint ambition: to develop innovative drugs for effective threatments. That's what we do every day.
