The history of Sanfer dates back to 1905, when engineer Karl R. Amtmann founded a company aptly named K.R. Amtmann, which entered the pharmaceutical market through medicine imports. Later, in 1941, two businessmen named Santoveña and Fernandez joined efforts to create Sanfer Laboratories, in an attempt to fill the medicine crisis void created by the Second World War.

In 1959, K.R. Amtmann acquired Sanfer Laboratories. Back then they received the first international laboratories licenses for medicine fabrication and distribution, giving birth to a way of work that survives to this day.