Founded in 1885, Boehringer Ingelheim, headquartered in the west-central German state of Ingelheim am Rhiem, near Frankfurt, is today the oldest continuously family-owned private pharmaceutical company in the world. It employs more than 45,000 researchers and chemists as well as an international network of aggressive sales representatives who have insured the global reach of this family-owned business. They have been associated with developing some of the most novel (and effective) drug regimens in fields as varied as oncology, diabetes, human immunodeficiency virus, respiratory infections, hepatitis, cardiovascular traumas, and Parkinson’s disease, and feature an extensive branch of research and development specializing in animal infections and veterinary medicines.

However, that international reputation has come at a cost. Since the late 1990s, Boehringer Ingelheim has often been accused of ...