May 30, 2012
With the completion of a series of major investments at the US site in St. Joseph, Missouri, Boehringer Ingelheim, the research driven pharmaceutical company, will expand its global animal health vaccines business.
The company will further enhance its position in the development and supply of vaccines against the most important diseases of pigs. With a remarkable investment programme from 2009-11 at the site in St. Joseph, Boehringer Ingelheim expanded its capacity for producing viral and bacterial vaccines by 50%. With this step Boehringer Ingelheim responds to increasing customer's demand for highly efficacious and safe products.
A new cGMP (current good manufacturing practice) facility, which was opened in May 2011 at Boehringer Ingelheim's US production site in St. Joseph, is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to meet the globally highest regulatory standards.
The additional production capacity especially involves the vaccines IngelvacCircoFLEX® and IngelvacMycoFLEX® both of which continue to experience fast-growing worldwide sales. IngelvacCircoFLEX® is established globally as customers' number one choice for PCV2 (Porcine circovirus type 2) vaccination while IngelvacMycoFLEX® has gained market leadership in vaccines against the respiratory pathogen Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae.
IngelvacMycoFLEX® has been launched in January 2012 in Japan and in 2011 became the market leader in several other countries, including USA, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico and South Korea.
Both products are part of a hugely popular FLEXcombo® concept of mixable stand-alone vaccine. A single injection protects the pigs against two of the most prominent and costly pig diseases instead of needing to inject the animals up to four times with other products to achieve similar protection.
The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world's 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 145 affiliates and more than 44,000 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel medications of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.
As a central element of its culture, Boehringer Ingelheim pledges to act socially responsible. Involvement in social projects, caring for employees and their families, and providing equal opportunities for all employees form the foundation of the global operations. Mutual cooperation and respect, as well as environmental protection and sustainability are intrinsic factors in all of Boehringer Ingelheim's endeavours.
In 2011, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of about EUR13.2 billion (US$16.45 billion). R&D expenditure in the business area Prescription Medicines corresponds to 23.5% of its net sales.
