The industry likes to point out that pharmaceuticals is the most research-intensive industry in Germany.

With an average share of 17 percent of sales and 21 percent of employees, companies in Germany are at the forefront of research and development.

The pharmaceutical companies invest around 38,600 euros in their own research per employee, as calculated by the industry association VFA.

In automobile construction it is 29,900 euros per head, in mechanical engineering only 11,600 euros.

Germany is also well positioned in Europe: According to the VFA, companies in Germany account for around a quarter of total European spending on pharmaceutical research.

Thiemo Heeg

Editor in Business.

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The Boehringer Ingelheim family group is particularly proud of its R&D department.

The 137-year-old traditional company, which is one of the largest research-based pharmaceutical companies in the country, has just set a new record - and still hasn't had enough.

The management made this clear on Tuesday in the annual press conference.

As early as 2021, the people of Rheinhessen spent more money than ever before on research and development, at 4.1 (previous year: 3.7) billion euros.

It shouldn't stay that way.

In the next five years, they want to invest 25 billion euros in research and development, as announced by the CEO, Hubertus von Baumbach.

Best seller: Diabetes medication Jardiance

Boehringer produces medicines for humans and animals.

The research pipeline for human pharmaceuticals alone includes more than 100 clinical and preclinical projects.

Based on the progress of those later-stage projects, the pipeline could allow for up to 15 new launches by 2025, the company predicts.

Boehringer is a particularly impressive example of the paths that research is pursuing.

The Ingelheim scientists focus their scientific investigations on better understanding the connections between different diseases.

Her diabetes drug Jardiance is a good example.

The drug with the active ingredient empagliflozin has been on the market for several years.

It has been used to treat type 2 diabetes since 2014.

Since June 2021, it has also been approved for the treatment of chronic heart failure, i.e. for people with heart muscle weakness whose ejection capacity of the organ is reduced.

According to Boehringer, this is the only approved treatment option for adults in the European Union.

This new possibility is based on research: By investing in a better understanding of the connections between the heart, kidney and metabolic systems, the application could also be extended to heart failure, according to Boehringer.

And that doesn't have to be the end of it: According to the company, Jardiance could also be useful in a variety of chronic kidney diseases.

This is shown by the positive interim analysis of data from the Empa Kidney study.

More dogs, more medicines

Of course, this not only benefits patients, but also the manufacturer.

Jardiance is Boehringer's best-selling drug - it ensures steadily increasing sales in the billions.

Last year, the family company generated sales of 3.9 billion euros with the tablet, which was 28.6 percent more than in 2020. Some experts are already assuming that it could soon be five billion euros;

the company itself does not like to make such forecasts.

However, it is undisputed that Boehringer does by far the best business in the field of human pharmaceuticals with the diabetes drug.

The pulmonary drug Ofev, with sales of 2.5 billion euros, is also showing strong growth rates.

At EUR 15.3 billion, sales of human pharmaceuticals grew by a total of 8.4 percent.

The animal health business also developed well.

Boehringer sees itself as a leading global supplier of vaccines and therapeutics for companion animals and livestock.

Here sales grew by 6.2 percent to 4.3 billion euros.

The anti-parasitic for dogs, Nexgard, flushed 916 million euros (plus 16.6 percent) into the Ingelheim coffers.

The growth is also due to the fact that more people got a pet during the corona pandemic, it said.

Overall, Boehringer broke the 20 billion mark for the first time with 20.6 billion euros.

The operating result at group level rose from 4.6 to 4.7 billion euros.

A slightly lower operating result is expected for 2022 due to the increased investments.