Founding
The Cesra pharmaceutical factory was set up in Rastatt in 1929.
Based in Baden-Baden, Cesra has been a recognized manufacturer of phytopharmaceutical medicines and medical cosmetics since 1929. Ever since the company’s earliest days, the name Cesra has communicated two things: our passion for helping people and our hometown of Rastatt in the southwest of Germany.
At the center of all Cesra’s commercial activities are people, their bodies, and their health. For decades, this has inspired us to produce and sell sustainable medicines and medical cosmetics based on natural active ingredients and components that harness the self-healing powers of nature.
Our passion for helping people with our medicines and medical cosmetics was taken one unique step further in the 1980s. The company founder’s successors gave up their stake in Cesra, resolving instead to transfer all future company profits to a specially formed, entirely independent humanitarian charity foundation: the Redel Foundation. Since then, our passion for helping people has manifested itself on two fronts: providing natural products for patients all over the world and using our profits to assist people in need, particularly the victims of natural disasters.
ilon has been Cesra’s pharmacy brand in the field of dermatology since 1929. The best-known product from the ilon series is ilon Classic Ointment for dermatitis. With its highly effective, antibacterial plant complex – consisting of larch, pine, and eucalyptus – it has for decades helped people with inflamed skin in all five phases of healing: redness, feeling of tightness, swelling, pain, and pus.
With ilon Classic Ointment, Cesra is now the leader in this market segment and can be found in virtually any pharmacy in Germany.
Since 1956, our Feminon products have provided assistance and relief to women of all ages. Today, the Feminon range consists of herbal medicinal products Feminon A with active ingredient Agnus castus (chaste tree dry extract) for menstrual complaints and Feminon C with active ingredient black cohosh for treating menopausal complaints.
Since the mid-1950s, herbal medicine Aescuven has been used to treat symptoms associated with chronic venous insufficiency.
Aescuven has been sold for decades under the brand name Mei Jii Ling in China, where it is the leader in the vein care market.
The history of ocean pharma dates back to 1978. It all began with the New Zealand green-lipped mussel and Omega-3 fatty acids, active ingredients from the sea. Today, the company’s products are primarily based on the microalga active ingredient Spiralin® and geared towards providing effective care for hypersensitive problem skin. After patenting the Spiralin® manufacturing process in 2014, a wide range of unique, protective products were developed based on the microalga active ingredient. These include medical foot care products under the Spirularin brand and medical skin care products under the skinicer brand.
Today, Cesra and its subsidiary Ocean Pharma are ideally positioned for the future. By continually investing in products, brands, quality, and production, we solidify our status as an internationally renowned manufacturer of high-quality phytopharmaceuticals.
By continuing these investments and focusing on our underlying passion for helping people, we are shaping the future of the company as an ethically aware pharmaceutical manufacturer. One that produces safe, effective medicines and medical cosmetics using sustainable, resource-friendly methods that meet the very highest standards. All of this in a pleasant, friendly working environment with flat hierarchies.
Our foundation inspires and motivates us every day to help Cesra go from strength to strength. Working closely together with our customers, doctors, pharmacists, and many other Cesra partners, we constantly take on board suggestions and ideas for further improving our products.
Expanding beyond Europe ultimately also allows us to finance the humanitarian work of the Redel Foundation to an even greater extent.
There are very few companies whose corporate purpose is centered on people and their well-being in the way that ours is.