Boehringer Ingelheim delivers marked increase in turnover and net income
Boehringer Ingelheim ended the financial year 2000 with a marked increase in both turnover and net income. As the company announced at its annual results press conference today, net sales rose by 22 per cent to EUR 6.2 billion. Operating income also increased by 22 per cent to EUR 800 million. After-tax profit was EUR 379 million, representing an increase of over 18 per cent compared to the previous year.
Professor Rolf Krebs, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors, described the financial year as “wholly satisfactory”, with all parameters and key figures turning out well. For 2001, the company again expects growth in double-digits. However, the currency effect will no longer be as strong a factor as last year. As Professor Marbod Muff, who has Corporate Board responsibility for Finance and Human Resources, explained, exchange rates contributed 11 per cent to growth in sales, while 11 per cent came from improved prices and volume and new product launches.
The company’s newly-launched products, that is to say those on the market since 1995, had developed very favourably, said Professor Krebs. Their share of the whole product portfolio had risen from 24 per cent in 1999 to 31 per cent last year. The share of products protected by patents was also growing continuously.
The company has great hopes for the launch of SPIRIVA®, a medication for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This product has blockbuster potential (i.e. sales exceeding EUR 1.0 billion a year. Only recently, Boehringer Ingelheim concluded a worldwide cooperation agreement for marketing SPIRIVA® with the US company Pfizer. The European market launch is foreseen in 2002, with the US launch following in 2003.
The therapeutic area Respiratory, at 37 per cent, has by far the largest share of Boehringer Ingelheim’s product portfolio, Dr Alessandro Banchi, who has Corporate Board responsibility for Marketing and Sales explained. The major products in this therapeutic area are ATROVENT® (EUR 650 million turnover in 2000) and COMBIVENT®(EUR 460 million). ALNA® (EUR 420 million), for benign prostatic hyperplasia, VIRAMUNE® (EUR 310 million), against HIV, and MOBIC® (EUR 230 million) a medication for rheumatic arthritis, all showed very strong growth.
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