Boehringer Ingelheim inaugurates its new integrated Asian Veterinary Research & Development Centre

Shanghai, China, 15 May 2018 - Boehringer Ingelheim, the world’s second largest animal health company, has been boosting its investment in China by expanding the Asian Veterinary Research & Development (R&D) Center to enhance its research and innovation capacity. Today, the company’s new integrated R&D Center has been officially inaugurated. Located in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, the R&D Center is currently the country’s largest integrated animal health R&D facility in terms of investment value, and is equipped with world-class R&D capabilities.

Initially put into operation in March 2012, Boehringer Ingelheim’s Asian Veterinary R&D Center, the largest of its kind established by a multinational pharmaceutical company in China, has been dedicated to discovering and developing innovative solutions to address specific livestock diseases in China and Asia. Therefore, it has set the high starting point of the new integrated R&D Center and its long-term leading strength. In January 2017, Boehringer Ingelheim and Merial officially merged, and have been going through integration since. With the inauguration of the new integrated R&D Center, the teams from both companies have now joined their forces in the R&D Center, which will leverage the broad R&D expertise to create powerful collaboration in veterinary R&D capabilities.

The new integrated R&D Center has a total investment of 19 million euros, covering a total area of 3,300 square meters. More than 110 researchers work at the center, led by eight international experts and 19 scholar returnees from overseas. In the meantime, Boehringer Ingelheim’s 8,000-square-meter Veterinary Trial Center (VTC) in Taizhou, with an investment of 16 million euros, has come into operation. As part of the new integrated Asian Veterinary R&D Center, VTC is the base to conduct animal trials during veterinary R&D. Up till today, the accumulated operation cost of the new integrated Asian Veterinary R&D Center has reached 125 million euros.

Dr. Yuan Shishan, Head of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Asian Veterinary R&D Center, said: “As one of company’s three global R&D Centers in addition to the ones in Europe and North America, the Asian Veterinary R&D Center brings together top-notch research talents at home and abroad, as well as world-class R&D capabilities. We are in China for China. We will leverage our consolidated world-leading R&D footprint to explore and develop innovative solutions especially aimed at preventing and controlling animal diseases in China and South East Asia.”

Currently, the R&D Center is running nearly 30 ongoing pipeline projects, several of which have reached late phases. Over the next two years, the center is expected to launch five innovative vaccine products targeting the China market. NNA and LDT3-A, two innovative vaccines targeting avian infectious bronchitis developed by the Asian Veterinary R&D Center, have been launched recently.

Dr. Joachim Hasenmaier, Member of the Board of Managing Directors and Head of Animal Health Business Unit, Boehringer Ingelheim, shared: “The inauguration of the new integrated Asian Veterinary R&D Center is a new milestone for Boehringer Ingelheim in China. It further strengthens our ability to provide services along the full value chain for Chinese customers and highlights our commitment to continuously investing in China. As a research-driven global leading company, Boehringer Ingelheim hopes to collaborate with local academic institutions and universities to jointly contribute to the improvement of animal and human health. We will continue to help enhance the animal health industry in China.”
 

Boehringer Ingelheim

Improving the health and quality of life of patients is the goal of the research-driven pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The focus in doing so is on diseases for which no satisfactory treatment option exists to date. The company therefore concentrates on developing innovative therapies that can extend patients’ lives. In animal health, Boehringer Ingelheim stands for advanced prevention.
 
Family-owned since it was established in 1885, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the pharmaceutical industry’s top 20 companies. Some 50,000 employees create value through innovation daily for the three business areas human pharmaceuticals, animal health and biopharmaceuticals. In 2017, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of nearly 18.1 billion euros. R&D expenditure, exceeding three billion euros, corresponded to 17.0 per cent of net sales.
 
As a family-owned company, Boehringer Ingelheim plans in generations and focuses on long-term success, rather than short-term profit. The company therefore aims at organic growth from its own resources with simultaneous openness to partnerships and strategic alliances in research. In everything it does, Boehringer Ingelheim naturally adopts responsibility towards mankind and the environment.
 
More information about Boehringer Ingelheim can be found on www.boehringer-ingelheim.com or in our annual report: https://annualreport.boehringer-ingelheim.com.

Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Business Unit

Boehringer Ingelheim is the second largest animal health business in the world. We are committed to creating animal wellbeing through our large portfolio of advanced, preventive healthcare products and services. With net sales of €3.9 billion and around 10,000 employees worldwide, we are present in more than 150 markets. For more information click here.

In China, the new Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health business provides a broader portfolio including the vaccines and pharmaceuticals covering swine, poultry, pets and cattle, and offers better solutions and stronger services to our customers. It is currently the China market leader in swine, poultry and pet products. The company’s China footprint covers the whole value chain from R&D, manufacturing to sales and technical service. Boehringer Ingelheim established leading Animal Health R&D Centers in Shanghai. Its manufacturing sites in Nanchang and Nanjing mainly produce avian vaccines against diseases affecting poultry broilers and layers, as well as provide related vaccination technical services. In Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, the company’s world-class animal vaccine production base is going to develop and manufacture high-quality swine vaccine products for China market. In addition, the new vaccine joint venture in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, dedicated to the control and prevention of swine foot-and-mouth disease, is expected to start production in 2021.

Boehringer Ingelheim is ‘in China for China’, and is committed to providing customers with better and innovative solutions as well as high-quality services in a bid to making the industry even better at improving both human and animal health.