Zongertinib

Boehringer Ingelheim is projecting a "slight" revenue increase in 2025 but admitted its estimates are clouded by uncertainty over the U.S. regulatory environment and potential U.S. tariffs for pharmaceutical products. Boehringer Ingelheim picked a challenging day to reveal its 2024 financial results and guidance for this year.With President Donald Trump announcing his plan on tariffs on Wednesday and uncertainty surrounding if and how they will affect the export of pharmaceutical products to the U.S., the German company is treading lightly with its projection of a “slight year-on-year increase” in revenue.“We don't even know whether there are going to be tariffs,” Chairman Hubertus von Baumbach said on Wednesday morning during the company’s annual press conference.There are other uncertainties in the U.S. for Boehringer, which is the largest privately-owned company in the industry and has overtaken Bayer as Germany’s top seller of pharmaceuticals.For one, the drugmaker has two key products under review by the FDA, both of which Boehringer hopes to launch in the second half of this year. But with the U.S. regulator in a state of flux, von Baumbach said he isn’t sure “to what extent it will impact our ability to register products.”“All we have is the information that people are being laid off,” he added. “Like in the case of tariffs, let’s wait and see.” As for 2024, Boehringer’s revenue reached 26.8 billion euros ($29 billion), which was a 4.7% increase and a 6.1% bump at constant exchange rates.Jardiance continued as Boehringer’s top product, generating revenue of 8.4 billion euros ($9.1 billion), which was up by 15%. Sales of the aging diabetes medicine have been boosted in recent years by its approval to treat heart failure. However, that momentum is slowing after Boehringer reported increases for Jardiance of 39% in 2022 and 30% in 2023.Boehringer’s second-leading product, Ofev saw a 9% bump in sales to 3.8 billion euros ($4.1 billion). With the company losing patent protection for the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis treatment by the end of this decade, it is banking on follow-on nerandomilast, which is under review in the U.S. and Europe. Boehringer also hopes to launch zongertinib this year. It would be the first orally administered, targeted therapy for previously treated HER2-mutated lung cancer patients.“As our current pipeline continues to mature and more products come closer to a potential market introduction, we have entered a pivotal phase of high investments,” von Baumbach said in a release, referring to Boehringer’s pharma R&D investment figure of 5.7 billion euros ($6.2 billion), which was 28% of the division’s sales.