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Boehringer Ingelheim has showed stronger growth than the world pharmaceutical market for the ninth year in a row, with the corporation’s net sales rising to €11.6bn (2007 €10.9bn) in 2008. This corresponds to a currency-adjusted increase of +9.5% and +5.9% on a euro-basis.
“We have achieved our goals through growth in all our business areas, primarily, of course, through the success of our innovative prescription medicines,” said Professor Dr Andreas Barner, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors.
“Our most important product, SPIRIVA®, for the first time posted turnover of more than €2bn – more importantly, over 10 million patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were successfully treated.”
Prescription medicines contributed considerably to the gratifying overall result, accounting for 79% of net sales.
It was gratifying, said Professor Barner, that in 2008 Boehringer Ingelheim once again created 1,500 jobs. The number of employees thereby rose worldwide by +4% to an average of 41,300.
This was in a year when Boehringer Ingelheim once again increased its investments in the future. Its expenditure for research and development rose by €200m, or +11%, against the previous year. In total, the corporation spent €2.1bn, substantially in the area of prescription medicines.
This corresponds to an R&D quota of 22% of net sales in prescription medicines. “High R&D costs with disproportionately large increases are a good sign at Boehringer Ingelheim: our pipeline is well-filled, in particular with substances in late-stage clinical development,” said Professor Barner.
Borne by a good result, shareholders’ capital rose to a total of €4.7bn, thereby markedly increasing the equity ratio on shareholders’ equity to 40%.
At almost €3bn, the corporation’s liquidity means the long-term goal of organic growth, as well as minor acquisitions that support this aim, can be financed from its own resources.
With a total of €665m, Boehringer Ingelheim invested primarily in production capacity for new products and buildings and plant at its research and development sites.
Hubertus von Baumbach, the member of the Board of Managing Directors responsible for the Corporate Board Division Finance and Animal Health, said: “Boehringer Ingelheim has now been an independent company for 124 years. The declared goal is to preserve this independence in the future. Solid funding, sustainable entrepreneurial success and valid business potential form the basis for a long, successful continuation.”
In addition to SPIRIVA®, the company’s best-selling product, MICARDIS®, the hypertension medicine, achieved net sales of €1.2bn and FLOMAX®/ALNA®, for the treatment of the symptoms of benign prostate hyperplasia, generated net sales of €1.1bn.
MIRAPEX®/SIFROL® became the most prescribed dopamine agonist worldwide due to its outstanding efficacy and good tolerability in the symptomatic treatment of Parkinson’s disease and the treatment of restless legs syndrome. It achieved net sales of €752m.
Due to the worldwide economic crisis, a safe forecast for business development in 2009 and beyond is difficult. So in the medium term significant changes and increased volatility in the general business environment cannot be ruled out.
For Boehringer Ingelheim’s Board of Managing Directors, this means planning carefully, continuously scrutinising the possible impact these changes will have on the company, and actively counteracting them.
However, Professor Barner said: “We are confident that we can again in 2009 continue growth in all businesses and that our prescription medicines business will once more achieve stronger growth than the pharmaceutical market, and that we will make a convincing contribution to the research and development of new therapies of importance to patients.”
