Heel Inc., which has been making homeopathic medicine in Albuquerque since 1978, opened its doors and popped champagne on Tuesday to celebrate its roots going back more than seven decades to Germany.
“Our purpose is to build a bridge between homeopathic medicine and conventional medicine so that homeopathic medicine is not marginal,” Heel President and CEO Thierry Montfort told the Journal. “That’s what we are doing here every day.”
More than 100 people, including Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, attended the open house and toured the company’s 52,546-square-foot facility at 10421 Research SE in Sandia Science and Technology Park.
“We want to show our customers – patients, doctors and retailers – the preparation of the medicines, explain the ingredients and the tools we use to make them,” Montfort said.
The Albuquerque operation employs 84 people with an annual payroll of $5.6 million, according to the company. Its current plant, which includes manufacturing clean rooms, opened in 2004 and was named industrial project of the year by NAIOP, the commercial real estate development association.
Heel Inc. was founded in 1936 by German physician Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg, who moved to Albuquerque in 1978 to set up a U.S. operation. Reckeweg died in 1985, although his legacy lives on with the company’s emphasis on product research and development.
“The philosophy we have at Heel is that research is not located at any one place,” said Ralph Schmidt, CEO of Heel’s parent company, Biologische Heilmittel Heel GmbH. “Research and development is done all through the (Heel) group.”
The company now offers more than 700 homeopathic medications in separate lines for human and animal use in more than 4,500 country-specific packages. One of its best-known products is Traumeel, which provides temporary relief of muscular pain, joint pain, sports injuries and bruising.
Still headquartered in Germany, where 800 of the company’s 1,300 employees are based, Heel now has 10 subsidiaries in countries around the world. More than two-thirds of the company’s sales are made outside of Germany.
The company name is an acronym made up of the initial letters of the Latin “Herba est ex luce,” which is loosely translated as “plants derive their healing power from light.”
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