Boehringer Ingelheim has posted net earnings growth of 7 per cent during the year ended December 2013 to €1,324 million from €1,237 million in the previous year. However, its net sales declined by 4.3 per cent to €14,065 million from €14,691 million. For the current financial year, the company expects net sales to remain at a comparable level to that of 2013. The company now employs more than 47,400 people worldwide, which is three per cent more than in the previous year.
Professor Andreas Barner, chairman of the board of managing directors said, "2013 was for Boehringer Ingelheim a year marked by many successes and some challenges. We concentrated on continuing our work on the long-term development of the company."
With afatinib, for the targeted treatment of a specific form of lung cancer, Boehringer last year successfully entered the oncology market. The compound was launched in the USA under the brand name of Gllotrif and the launch has in the meantime started in the European Union under the name of Giotrif. A second new product launch in 2013 was Striverdi Respimat (olodaterol) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
In the next two years alone, the company is planning more than ten new launches in eight indications: diabetes, COPD, asthma, lung cancer, the rare disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a rare form of leukaemia (AML) and the treatment and prevention of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. For the last mentioned indication, the company received marketing approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for Pradaxa at the beginning of April. The company is currently working on 90 research and development projects. In the current financial year, Boehringer is planning to take on nine new investigational compounds in phase II clinical studies. "We will strengthen our therapeutic areas immunology and disorders of the central nervous system, CNS," said Barner.
"We can say that Boehringer came through 2013 well, despite extraordinary effects and the negative impact of exchange rate developments," said Hubertus von Baumbach, member of the board of managing directors with responsibility for Finance. At around €2.7 billion, the company once again invested substantially in research and development. Expenditure for research and development as a share of net sales rose from 19 per cent in 2012 to 19.5 per cent in 2013. The company invested a further €23 million in the extension of the production facilities and the chemical research and development laboratory in Shanghai, China.
The sales of prescription medicines declined by 4.5 per cent to €10,891 million during 2013 from €11,405 million in the previous year. The oral anticoagulant Pradaxa once again proved to be the growth driver, with net sales increasing by more than 8 per cent to €1.2 billion. Spiriva for the treatment of COPD remained the most successful medicine. Net sales were decline 0.3 per cent in euro terms to around €3.5 billion.
The three most important markets – the USA, Japan and Germany – accounted for around 60 per cent of Boehringer Ingelheim's total net sales in 2013. In Germany, the company generated net sales of around €1 billion, but the German share of Boehringer Ingelheim's global business in prescription medicines amounted to only five per cent. In Japan, the company generated net sales of over €1.8 billion and in the USA around €5.2 billion. Net sales were last year severely impacted by exchange rate effects in the USA and Japan.
In view of the many challenges, no particular signs of growth will emerge in the pharmaceutical industry in the course of the next few years. “The market environment for innovative medicines is not going to get any easier in the current financial year,” said Professor Barner. "In view of this and the impact from the expiry of patents, we expect to achieve net sales for our company in 2014 that are comparable to those in the previous year."