Boehringer Ingelheim reported a decline in overall sales in 2014 and expects a moderate increase in sales for 2015.

“After a challenging 2014, the focus for us now is on launching numerous additional new products and on our profitability,” said Professor Andreas Barner, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Boehringer Ingelheim, at the company’s press briefing held in late April 2015. “We were able to submit a large number of compounds for marketing authorization in 2014 and, with research and development expenditure amounting to just close to EUR 2.7 billion [$2.9 billion], we have invested once again in the future.”

In 2014, the company generated net sales of around EUR 13.3 billion ($14.4 billion), which, currency-adjusted, represented a decline of 3.2% (-5.3% in euro terms). For the current financial year, the company expects a moderate increase in net sales compared with the previous year. In 2014, prescription medicines, the company’s most important business, generated net sales of EUR 10.1 billion ($10.9 billion). At EUR 3.2 billion ($3.5 billion), Spiriva for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains the company's best-selling product. Diabetes is another important franchise. In 2014, the Trajenta/Jentadueto product family for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes generated an increase in net sales, currency-adjusted, of around 37% to EUR 636 million ($689 million). The anticoagulant Pradaxa contributed EUR 1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) to net sales.

Medicines launched in the last few months include Striverdi Respimat for treating COPD, Jardiance (empagliflozin), Glyxamibi, a combination of the active ingredients, linagliptin and empagliflozin, for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, Ofev for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and, at the beginning of January 2015, Vargatef for the treatment of advanced lung cancer patients with adenocarcinoma after chemotherapy.

With net sales of more than EUR 1.4 billion ($1.5 billion), the company’s consumer healthcare medicines business accounted for 11% of the group's net sales. In its animal health business, Boehringer Ingelheim generated net sales of more than EUR 1 billion ($1.08 billion) and net sales of EUR 501 million ($543 million) in 2014 in its contract manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals.

Overall, sales in the US, Japan, and Germany, accounted for approximately 55% of the company’s net sales in 2014, with net sales of around EUR 912 million ($988 million) in Germany, net sales of around EUR 1.7 billion ($1.8 billion) in Japan, and around EUR 4.6 billion (4.98 billion) in the US.

Source: Boehringer Ingelheim