Driven to innovate – our biotech story
Leadership through innovation
Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the leading innovators in biopharmaceutical manufacturing and development. This breakthrough field allows for the manufacture of drugs using living systems, with no need for extremely high temperatures or heavy metals as catalysts and has made many new therapeutic approaches possible.
In the 1990s, we were one of the pioneer companies in the field as the first products were approved. And since then, we have invested in biotechnology ever since, in line with our vision to develop breakthrough therapies for diseases that cannot be adequately treated - or are not accessible - with current methods.
A major milestone
We owe our dominant position in biopharmaceuticals partly to the entrepreneurial decisions of Hubertus Liebrecht, our shareholder chairman in the 1980s. He set up a collaboration with an innovative biotech company in California. From that collaboration, three new products where brought to market. It was a major milestone for Boehringer Ingelheim in biotechnology generally, but especially in cell culture and microbial manufacturing.
We were able to build on that success organically, thanks to our family-owned status. Other companies grow their capabilities through acquisition; we prioritize sustainability, thinking in generations rather than quarters, and taking the time to grow and learn.
New modalities
Today, our innovation is helping to drive the next generation of biopharmaceuticals, going beyond microbial and mammalian synthesis of proteins to viral particles, and even living cells.
Meanwhile, antibody drug conjugates offer great promise. These ‘magic bullets’ combine the specificity of an antibody and the toxicity of a chemical substance or a natural toxin. The antibody carries the toxin to the disease - in most cases cancer - which kills the cells, unlike traditional chemotherapy where the whole body is exposed to toxic chemicals. In the future, the chemicals could be directed using biologics.
Innovation everywhere
Our biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities are highly complex and, in order to manage and use data, we have developed a lot of digital tools that operate processes better, control the complexity of the operations, and help lay the foundation for even better processes in the future.
Another area of great innovation is productivity. In the early years, cells generated only a very small amount of product; 30 years later, production yields are a hundred times higher, thanks to technological advancements in cell lines, media, culture, and operating conditions.
Smart glasses, for example, minimize the number of people who need to enter a facility, reducing the risk of contamination and the downtime it causes. When technicians need support on a specialist repair, they can use the smart glasses to live-stream to a supervisor and ask for advice – expanding the pool of support to experts from all around the world. We may see more of this in the future with the development of ‘digital twins’: digital duplicates of a facility which allow for tests, transfers, and batch operations to be simulated without the need to be onsite so that the facility can focus purely on execution.
Driven to succeed
Biopharmaceuticals are a prime example of how Boehringer Ingelheim’s passion for innovation has enabled us to become the world’s largest privately owned, research-driven pharmaceutical company - and our innovation is driven by the understanding that ours is a highly competitive field. To us, it's essential that we stay focused on discovering and developing breakthrough therapies – not only for the sake of the business, but to fulfil our purpose of transforming human and animal lives for generations.