Boehringer Ingelheim’s net sales in 2017 exceed 18 billion euros

Ingelheim, Germany- 25 April 2018 – The research-driven pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim can look back on a very successful 2017 financial year. All businesses contributed to net sales growth. Research and development (R&D) expenditure exceeded three billion euros, around 2.7 billion euros of which was injected in the human pharmaceuticals sector alone.

“There are still more questions than answers in medicine. We want to continue putting all our efforts into tackling the challenges in research. A high level of investment in R&D therefore reflects our corporate identity,” explained Hubertus von Baumbach, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors during the Annual Press Conference 2018 held in Ingelheim.



Hubertus von Baumbach, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of the research-driven pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim speaking during a press conference held in Ingelheim on Wednesday 25 April, 2018 - Photo by Mohamed Abdel Baqy/Egypt Today


Last year, Boehringer Ingelheim generated net sales of nearly 18.1 billion euros, representing an increase of 15.7 per cent in currency-adjusted terms (+13.9 per cent in euro terms). Adjusted for all the one-off effects that have resulted from the business swap with Sanofi, the company recorded currency-adjusted net sales growth of 6.1 per cent (+4.4 per cent in euro terms). With operating income of around 3.5 billion euros, the return on net sales came to 19.3 per cent. The company employed an average of approximately 50,000 people worldwide in 2017.

Boehringer Ingelheim experienced organic growth across all business areas last year.

“Our human pharmaceuticals business in particular exceeded our expectations,” emphasized Michael Schmelmer, Member of the Board of Managing Directors responsible for Finance. “The main growth drivers here were our business in the US market and emerging markets.”

In the human pharmaceuticals business, Boehringer Ingelheim last year succeeded in generating net sales of more than one billion US dollars each with six medicines.

Overall, net sales from human pharmaceuticals grew by 6.9 per cent in currency-adjusted terms to more than 12.6 billion euros (+5.0 per cent in euro terms). This growth outpaced the market. The human pharmaceuticals business therefore contributed around 70 per cent of total net sales.

The year 2017 was also a very successful year for Boehringer Ingelheim in R&D. The company accomplished the transfer of 13 new active ingredients to clinical studies as first-in-man applications. The company is thus focusing on the areas of cardiometabolic diseases, oncology, respiratory diseases, diseases of the central nervous system and immunology. “We have an extremely competitive pipeline with 80 development projects,” said von Baumbach. “This provides us with strong future prospects for sustainable business development and particularly for innovation that benefits patients.”

As a result of the additional net sales brought about by the transaction, net sales in animal health have more than doubled to 3.9 billion euros. The two parasiticides generated the largest share of net sales.

Overall, Boehringer Ingelheim generated around 22 percent of its total net sales in the animal health business. “We have made good progress with a challenging and complex integration process,” explained von Baumbach.

“Our employees deserve our unreserved recognition and our gratitude for this – due in no small part to their commitment, we are now a competitive player for the future in the animal health business. We are outstandingly positioned for medical breakthroughs that will make animal diseases controllable through prevention.”

The biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing business grew by 10.7 per cent in currency-adjusted terms last year to 678 million euros and contributed four per cent to total net sales.