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15/4/2005
Boehringer Ingelheim opens new biopharmaceutical production plant in Vienna
Vienna, Austria, 12 April 2005 – The new biopharmaceutical production plant for manufacturing therapeutically active proteins, plasmid DNA and single chain antibodies at Boehringer Ingelheim’s site in Vienna (Austria) was inaugurated today in a ceremony attended by high ranking representatives of politics and economy. The doubling of capacity in Vienna, where also Boehringer Ingelheim’s R&D Center for drug discovery in oncology is located, now enables the corporation to use two 6,000-litre fermenters for its biopharmaceutical production.
With a total investment of more than EUR 80 million, this expansion is the corporation’s largest single investment at its Austrian subsidiary and will create 200 new and highly qualified jobs in Austria. The inauguration of a second production plant for manufacturing of innovative biopharmaceuticals in Austria greatly strengthens the leading position of Boehringer Ingelheim.
“All our business segments successfully developed in their markets in 2004. The biopharmaceutical business achieved the highest growth rate, increasing net sales by 40 percent. In the last five years, sales in this area more than tripled from EUR 127 million in 1999 to EUR 392 million in 2004”, comments Dr Hans-Jürgen Leuchs, member of the Board of Managing Directors and Head of Corporate Board Divisions Biopharmaceuticals/Operations at Boehringer Ingelheim.
With two biotech sites – in Biberach (Germany) and Vienna (Austria) – for development and production, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the leading companies with a strong reputation in production of biopharmaceuticals using mammalian cell culture, native and recombinant microorganism and yeast.
“The new plant at the Vienna site, as well as our site in Biberach (Germany), where we specialize on mammalian cell culture technology, are of strategic importance for Boehringer Ingelheim’s worldwide bio-business”, says Prof. Rolf G. Werner, Director Corporate Division Biopharmaceuticals at Boehringer Ingelheim International. “Our two biopharmaceutical manufacturing sites allow us to provide the entire biotechnical process chain in early development and large-scale commercial manufacturing from genetic engineering, formulation and downstream processing to filling and finishing in state-of-the-art application systems as well as global registration and marketing of biopharmaceutials. You might call it a ‘one-stop-shop’ for our customers. Or as we like to put it, we cooperate with our partners from mind to market”.
For more than 25 years, Boehringer Ingelheim has been a pioneer in the field of modern biotechnology and became the leading biotech company in Europe in 1998. Projects from Boehringer Ingelheim’s R&D centers as well as from key clients are being developed and scaled-up at both biopharmaceutical production sites in Vienna and Biberach. Boehringer Ingelheim provides contract manufacturing services for leading biotechnology companies, mainly in the U.S., in Canada and Japan, but also in Europe. The company has stepped up the development and production of its own biotechnical products and provides new medicines such as Actilyse®, Metalyse®, and Beromun®.
Boehringer Ingelheim
The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 144 affiliates in 45 countries and nearly 36,000 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.
In 2004, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales of 8.2 billion euro while spending nearly one fifth of net sales in its largest business segment Prescription Medicines on research and development.
Related link:
http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/biopharm/home/home.htm
Contact:
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH
Heidrun Thoma
Corporate Division Communications
55216 Ingelheim am Rhein
GERMANY
Phone: +49/6132 77 3966
Fax.: +49/6132 77 3999 |
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